Montana’s new slogan. No restriction on AI. Come here and ruin our state with data centers.

While the law allows state regulation of computation in the interest of public health and safety, it sets a high bar: any restrictions must be demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest. Legal experts note that this is one of the most protective standards available under Montana law.

The act also includes provisions for AI-controlled critical infrastructure, requiring both a “shutdown mechanism” to allow human control and annual safety reviews — a move aimed at balancing innovation with public safety concerns.

• "Hmm, this seems like a good idea".
• Supported by a bunch of AI business groups.
• "...this seems like less of a good idea."

EDIT: So after reading the bill, I can see the following problem:

It limits any level of government from restricting the private use of AI tech unless it meets a relatively high bar of legality and specificity. Remember that private use refers to both personal and business use. This means that e.g. a township could NOT decide to ban datacenters due to environmental concerns, water use, etc. They would need to prove a specific datacenter was 'creating common law nuisances' AND that they had exhausted other legal options before they could create any legal restrictions on that specific datacenter (let alone a blanket restriction). The law technically allows for other 'compelling government interests', but fails to list them... meaning it could be challenged in court and would be completely open to a judge's decision. Basically this creates a legal environment where datacenters have a right to operate and any attempt to regulate them would be fraught with the risk of expensive court cases.

Pro-business legislation dressed up as personal rights. Never change, Montana.

The bill text of SB-212 seems pretty reasonable. Basically just says the government needs a good reason to create regulations on computation.

It even explicitly mentions good reasons may include things like fraud, deepfakes, and public nuisances of datacenters.

As a Montanan, I'm cool with it. Guess we'll see how it's used.

Promise this will be nothing good for Montana or it's citizens.

The internet is getting so shitty, either another web needs to start or we are just going to stop using it.

the only good thing about montana is zooey zephyr