Privacy & Cybersecurity Law Blog

On March 25, 2025, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed the High-Risk Artificial Intelligence Developer and Deployer Act (the “Act”), which had been passed by the Virginia legislature. The Act would have imposed accountability and transparency requirements with respect to the development and deployment of “high-risk” AI systems. In explaining the veto, the Governor stated that the Act’s “rigid framework fails to account for the rapidly evolving and fast-moving nature of the AI industry and puts an especially onerous burden on smaller firms and startups that lack large legal compliance departments.” The Governor also noted that Virginia’s existing laws “protect consumers and place responsibilities on companies relating to discriminatory practices, privacy, data use, libel, and more,” and that an executive order issued by the Governor’s Administration had “establish[ed] safeguards and oversight for AI use, and assembl[ed] a highly skilled task force comprised of industry leading experts to work closely with [the] Administration on key AI governance issues.”