Mandela Barnes proposes blocking use of AI to boost consumer prices

Democratic candidate for governor Mandela Barnes said that, if elected, he'd propose measures to bar companies from using artificial intelligence to drive up prices or limit access to services for consumers.

The former lieutenant governor's proposal includes measures to ban companies like Instacart and Walmart from using AI to implement dynamic pricing, prevent health insurers from using the technology to deny insurance claims and fine companies like Meta for enabling e-commerce scammers, according to a proposal shared by his campaign.

"Billionaires and greedy corporations are using AI to rip off Wisconsin families," Barnes said in a statement. "Insurers are using AI to deny health care claims and raise premiums. Large grocers like Walmart are setting different prices for the same goods based on your Internet history."

How Barnes would implement such rules is still unclear. A campaign spokesperson said Barnes would work with the Legislature to pass the AI regulations, which would be enforced by the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in cooperation with the state Department of Justice.

Barnes spokesperson Cole Wozniak said Barnes would seek to give consumers "who have been harmed" by law violators the right to sue companies.

Barnes is in a wide-open Democratic field for governor who will face off on Aug. 11 after Gov. Tony Evers decided not to run for a third term.

Under existing state law, if "the state or a part of the state is in a period of abnormal economic disruption," Wisconsin's governor may issue an executive order triggering the state's price gouging law, which prohibits charging "unreasonably excessive prices."

DATCP is responsible under current law for determining whether a price is reasonably excessive, which, according to the agency, would be "15% higher than the seller's highest price within the last 60 days preceding the emergency" without a corresponding cost increase to the seller.

Lawmakers in Maryland earlier this month became the first in the U.S. to ban grocery stores and delivery apps from using artificial intelligence to set higher prices based on customer data, a practice known as dynamic pricing or surveillance pricing.

The practice can use customers' personal information, like where they live, to set higher prices if the company determines a customer would likely purchase the higher-priced items anyway.

New York lawmakers in November also included a provision in the state's budget that requires such apps to disclose they are using the practice.

Lawmakers in Wisconsin have sought to regulate the use of AI in recent years, and Gov. Tony Evers has signed into law bipartisan bills, including a requirement for campaign ads to include a disclaimer if they use artificial intelligence, an expansion of the definition of child pornography to include AI-generated content and a ban on distributing sexually explicit "deepfakes" without consent.

Evers in December sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to abandon attempts to prevent states from regulating artificial intelligence.

The state Senate Committee on Utilities, Technology and Tourism held a public hearing in March on a bill proposed by Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, that would bar health insurers from using AI to deny prior authorization for medical necessity or experimental status. Roys is also running for governor.

Barnes released a video on Wednesday promoting his proposal that depicted children operating a lemonade stand who kept changing their prices each time Barnes jogged by.