AI Freedom Vs. Government Control? NH Leaders Make Their Case

By Evan Lips, NH Journal

With artificial intelligence quickly moving from drafting emails to powering driverless cars, Americans for Prosperity–New Hampshire gathered tech advocates, lawmakers, and entrepreneurs last week to ask a big question: How far should government go in regulating this rapidly advancing technology?

The event, billed as a discussion on a proposed “Right to Compute,” featured a panel including state Rep. Keith Ammon (R–New Boston) and Juliana Heerschap of the Utah-based Abundance Institute. AFP-NH Deputy Director Sarah Scott moderated the discussion.

At the center of the conversation: a growing nationwide movement to protect open access to AI tools, prevent government control of emerging technologies, and ensure individuals and small businesses can innovate without restrictions.

Ammon is the sponsor of legislation that would make New Hampshire a hub for AI innovation by preventing the state from imposing licensing or registration requirements on AI developers and users. The bill mirrors a law passed in Montana last spring.

Rep. Keith Ammon (R-New Boston) and Juliana Heerschap, Chief of Staff for Policy and Strategy for Abundance Institute, participate in a roundtable moderated by AFP-NH Deputy State Director Sarah Scott.

To explain why he views the issue as fundamental to individual liberty, Ammon reached back to pre-Revolutionary America.

“Printing presses used to be registered with the king,” Ammon told attendees. “If something came out of your press that was seditious or treasonous or even anti-religious, you could be shut down. The Founding Fathers put protection of a machine — ‘freedom of the press’ — into the First Amendment.”

According to Ammon, today’s equivalent threat is the federal government requiring AI models to be registered or controlled — a provision that President Joe Biden included in a 2023 executive order, later reversed by President Donald Trump.

“That’s the king saying, ‘This is a dangerous machine, you must register it,’” Ammon said. “If you can put barriers to entry among your competition, you’re golden. You have a monopoly.”

Ammon’s proposal has stalled for now, but he says he will refile.

“This is a historic moment,” he said. “People were just late to the conversation and couldn’t catch up.”

Heerschap framed the idea as a fundamental safeguard for individual rights.

“Right-to-compute legislation memorializes core rights,” she said. “The burden of proof goes back on the government. It provides aggressive guardrails to ensure people have the right to build, create, and innovate in the AI space.”

Scott emphasized the bill does not create new rights; it clarifies existing ones.

“The goal is to preempt anybody saying, ‘This tool is too powerful, you shouldn’t have access to it,’” Scott said. “It also provides clarity for a lot of businesses.”

The discussion also touched on another key piece of the AI puzzle: power.

AI data centers consume massive amounts of electricity, a challenge in a region with some of the nation’s highest energy costs. That’s what drew Bill Spellane, CEO of Starcube, a Portsmouth-based nuclear microreactor development firm, to the AFP-NH event.

Spellane said microreactors — strongly supported by Gov. Kelly Ayotte — could play a crucial role in making the region competitive as AI grows.

“It’s not a question of if, but when AI becomes as omnipresent as the internet,” he told NHJournal. While acknowledging concerns about job disruption, he argued that technological shifts have always reshaped labor markets.

“A hundred years ago, nine out of 10 jobs involved hands-on work,” Spellane noted. “Automation changed that. AI will do the same.”

The debate in New Hampshire mirrors a national surge in state-level AI policymaking.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 45 states introduced AI-related legislation in 2024, and 31 enacted laws or resolutions. The momentum has only intensified this year. By mid-2025, roughly 47 states had considered AI measures, and more than 30 had passed one or more statutes.

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act. The comprehensive law requires the largest AI developers to disclose their safety protocols and assess potential “catastrophic risks” posed by their models. The measure is aimed squarely at companies building the largest and most powerful AI systems—the same firms that have driven much of the global race in generative AI.

Ammon and his allies want New Hampshire to stay ahead — and stay open.

“Technology moves fast,” he said. “Government moves slow. We should make sure innovation happens here, not somewhere else.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.