Dear ,
Last week, I published a newsletter (also available on substack) about Governor Healey’s decision to give OpenAI a multimillion-dollar contract to deploy its AI tool across the entire executive branch with unclear protections over our private data including health records, unemployment, and vital records.
A task force stacked with executives from Microsoft, Amazon, and Fidelity (all of which have major financial ties to OpenAI) made this decision. There are no consumer advocates, no voice of the people, and no unions nor workers on this task force.
I want to share some good news: after raising these concerns publicly, the Governor’s office reached out to me quickly. I appreciate the Governor’s administration promptly meeting with me last week to discuss next steps on ensuring more transparency and public oversight with respect to data protection, governance and decision-making over the contract, and the procurement process. We also discussed the need for labor unions to shape how this tool is used.
I am hopeful that the Governor’s office will work towards greater transparency around how these AI systems are being selected and deployed. This is a real step forward and it happened because our community asked the right questions. Thank you to everyone who advocated for transparency and public accountability.
The MAGA winner take all strategy:
It could all get worse. Trump is pushing through an Executive Order to prevent any transparency or regulation around AI and there are bills moving through state legislatures right now that would have made what I just did, asking questions and demanding transparency, completely illegal.
They're called "right to compute" laws, and they’re being pushed by companies and investors, this is the MAGA winner take all strategy.
These bills are not getting the attention they deserve and in Massachusetts we should be taking proactive steps to protect all of us and ensure transparency. This is something our community should know. Like many corporate-backed movements, it sounds like a protection for citizens. It isn’t.
What is “right to compute”?
Montana became the first state to pass this kind of law in April 2025. Similar bills are moving through New Hampshire (where it’s a proposed constitutional amendment), Ohio, and South Carolina.
The laws would require the government to prove a “compelling interest” before regulating any computational system. That includes AI.
That might initially sound reasonable. It isn’t.
“Compelling interest” is the highest legal bar. It’s the standard we use for restrictions on fundamental rights like speech and religion. Most regulations can’t clear it.
Where did this come from?
The movement grew out of Bitcoin mining lobbies. The Satoshi Action Fund (a crypto advocacy group founded by Trump administration alumni) worked with Montana legislators on “right to mine” bills in 2023. They realized if you “protect computation” broadly, you can prevent any oversight or transparency in one legal framework.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, adopted a model “Right to Compute Act” in August 2025. Funded by dark money, ALEC writes template bills and distributes them to state legislators. In the past decade, roughly 2,900 ALEC bills have been introduced across the country. Over 600 became law.
This isn’t grassroots. It’s a pipeline: Bitcoin mining money flows through a dark money organization into ALEC’s model bill factory, and out to state capitols. The same process is in motion with AI.
What does this block?
Under these laws, you would have to file a lawsuit in order to have the following:
-
AI safety testing requirements
- Algorithmic bias audits
- Transparency and disclosure rules
- Requirements that AI systems explain their decisions
If your housing application, your healthcare claim, your job application, or your benefits determination is made by an AI system, these laws make it harder for the government to require that system to be transparent, fair, or unbiased.
It gets worse.
In December 2025, President Trump signed an executive order creating a DOJ task force to sue states that regulate AI. The order also directs the FTC to declare that requiring AI systems to mitigate bias is “deceptive” because it changes the AI’s “truthful outputs.”
To be clear, the federal government’s position is that if an AI system is trained on biased data, forcing it to produce fairer results makes it “less truthful.” Algorithmic fairness requirements could become federally illegal.
They’re attacking from both directions: state laws to immunize AI from regulation, and federal action to punish states that try to protect their residents.
Who benefits?
Ask yourself: who wants AI systems that can’t be audited? Who benefits when algorithms don’t have to explain themselves?
Not you. Not our community. Not anyone who’s ever been denied housing, healthcare, or a job, or benefits by a system they couldn’t see and couldn’t challenge.
The people who benefit are the companies that build these systems and profit off of them. They get to profile you, assess you, and make decisions about your life without accountability or transparency.
What can we do?
Massachusetts hasn’t seen one of these bills yet. But we should be ready and we need to be proactive. We have the power to pass legislation that would protect our state from Trump’s Executive Order. That’s what I’ll be working on.
I’ll be looking forward to next steps from Governor Healey’s administration with respect to this current OpenAI contract as well.
