Together, we can make sure technology works for us and doesn’t exploit us. I’ve authored more legislation than any other Wisconsin lawmaker to regulate Big Tech, protect Wisconsin kids and consumers, and to restrict the ways algorithmic softwares (including AI) and other emergency technologies can be used. Technological advancements should benefit us -- but instead they’re making everyday goods and services more expensive. As governor, I will prioritize affordability, safety, privacy, and consumer protection by:

• Banning companies from using AI to jack up prices by spying on you. Massive corporations are using big data and algorithmic learning to charge you discriminatory, individualized prices based on the amount of money you have, your credit score, and your purchase history instead of a fixed, transparent price.

  • Big retailers, online stores, and services like Instacart use AI-powered discriminatory price gouging, increasing the price of groceries and household goods. which is why I authored legislation to ban it.

  • Corporate behemoths like Ticketmaster do it, and we pay higher prices for live entertainment while local venues, promoters, and artists get squeezed, which is why I authored the S.W.I.F.T.I.E Act -- The Stop Wildly Inflated Fees and Ticketing Industry Exploitation Act.

• Protecting kids from exploitive Big Tech practices by Big Tech, and improving academic outcomes by getting distractions out of the classroom

  • Passing an “away all day” statewide policy on cell phones, with appropriate exceptions for students who need assistive technology for learning or IEPs, or for disability, health, or other legitimate reasons

  • Reducing screen time and removing distractions from the classroom at all grade levels, including reducing or eliminating 1:1 laptop/tablets in elementary schools and significantly limiting screen time in middle and high school.

  • Banning school-based AI use by children in K-8, and requiring evidence showing that EdTech products actually improve learning outcomes better than traditional methods before adoption

  • Passing the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploiting Kids Act, or SAFE Kids Act, which prevents social media companies from collecting data, targeting ads, or creating algorithmic feeds for users under 18. Social media is akin to a defective product -- the more time we spend on their platforms, the more money they make: we're not the customer -- we're the product. We know that social media use among young people causes significant harm and negative impacts, and government needs to be a partner to parents in preventing companies from harming kids. We need to stop Big Tech from keeping our kids continuously scroling before their brains have had a chance to fully develop, and to flat out ban surveillance, data collection, and targeted advertising, for users under 18.

• Prohibiting insurance companies from using AI to deny prior authorization claims.

• Prohibiting landlords from using AI to illegally fix rent prices and break our laws against anti-competitive practices.

• Stopping crypto-kiosk fraud and improving consumer protection laws in every agency.

• Enabling electronic IDs and drivers licenses.

• Requiring immediate, clear disclosure of the use of AI/chatbot technology in any interaction, so that people know if they are speaking to or chatting with a human or a bot.

• Protect human expertise and knowledge. Prohibit AI from doing the crucial work of regulated, licensed professionals – law, nursing, counseling, etc. While tools that assist in the work done by professionals should be allowed, they must be overseen by and subservient to an actual human who is a qualified licensed professional in our jurisdiction.

• AI-driven productivity increases and profits must be broadly shared, and risk aligned with profit. We don't want a world where we millions are thrown out of work because AI is taking jobs. Instead, we want an economy where all workers benefit from productivity gains -- for example, a 4-day workweek for everyone rather than 10% structural unemployment. AI was built using the knowledge and ingenuity of the whole of humanity -- without our consent. We should not allow the risks to be socialized nor the gains to be privatized. I support a vision for AI that lets all of us benefit economically from the massive wealth that is being created by this technological shift, such as the concept of an AI Sovereign Wealth Fund laid out by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.

• Build universal broadband connectivity. The internet is necessary for modern life and should be treated as a public utility. For education, work and our economy, communication, and recreation, we need every Wisconsinite to have access to high-speed internet that is affordable and reliable.

• Immediately regulate data centers to stop unfettered development. Right now, the richest and most powerful corporations in the history of the world are steamrolling local communities, destroying the environment, demanding massive amounts of power, and causing huge increases in energy costs. Read my comprehensive plan to regulate data centers here. I'll sign an executive order on Day 1 to enforce strong environmental, worker, and consumer protections, while immediately passing strong statewide regulations that protect workers, our environment and water, local control and transparency, and ratepayers and taxpayers.

  Technological advancements must benefit Wisconsinites. But more than regulation, we also need to stop subsidizing data centers and instead demand significant investment from them for our public benefit. That’s why I’ll require upfront payments from large data center projects to capitalize a public infrastructure bank, which will provide no-cost loans for clean energy upgrades to public buildings like schools and courthouses.

• Use technology to deliver better, more efficient public services. Even though unregulated AI carries risks, modern technology holds enormous promise to help make it easier for people to navigate public services and to engage with our government. As a tech entrepreneur and small business owner, I'm committed to investing in ways to better connect people with the information and services they need from state government. We can save taxpayer dollars, save time, and serve you better by making long-overdue investments in our public technology infrastructure.

• Establish an anti-trust division at the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Big monopolies are getting away with jacking up prices, stifling competition, suppressing wages, and offering substandard products, because they have so much market power. Consolidation is a problem in industries from agriculture to banking to healthcare, but it's a huge part of the ills we face from big technology companies as well. Even when innovative startups create great new products, they're often gobbled up by tech giants before they have a real chance to compete and grow. With the federal government now abandoning its commitment to competition by suspending regulation and anti-trust enforcement, states must step up to protect consumers and the free market.

• Align risk with reward -- no corporate immunity. Right now, Big Tech companies are given broad exemptions from liability -- essentially a "free pass" to create products that harm people, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law. We cannot make the same mistake with AI and data centers. The companies that are looking to profit from these technologies must bear the full risk of any harms that could come, including civil and criminal liability. No political giveaways to insulate these wealthy, powerful corporations from decisions that could endanger our health and safety -- the threat of liability is an important counterbalance to the profit motive to reign in corporate malfeasance and excessive risk-taking.

As governor, I will continue to fight for an affordable Wisconsin where technology and innovation serves all of us and makes our lives better, not worse.