Right to Compute Act

2025-2026 Bill 4657: Right to Compute Act - South Carolina Legislature Online

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026
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H. 4657
STATUS INFORMATION
General Bill
Sponsors: Reps. Guffey, Pope and Oremus
Document Path: LC-0184HA26.docx
Introduced in the House on January 13, 2026
Currently residing in the House Committee on
Labor, Commerce and Industry
Summary: Right to Compute Act
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

Date

Body

Action Description with journal page number

12/16/2025

House

Prefiled

12/16/2025

House

Referred to Committee on
Labor, Commerce and Industry

1/13/2026

House

Introduced and read first time (
House Journal-page 47
)

1/13/2026

House

Referred to Committee on
Labor, Commerce and Industry
(
House Journal-page 47
)

View the latest
legislative information
at the website
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
12/17/2025

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ENACTING THE
"RIGHT TO COMPUTE ACT" BY ADDING CHAPTER 35 TO TITLE 1 SO AS TO REQUIRE RISK
MANAGEMENT POLICIES FOR CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE CONTROLLED BY ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS AND TO ESTABLISH WHEN PRIVATE COMPUTATIONAL RESOURCES MAY
BE RESTRICTED.

W
hereas, innovations in
computational technology, such as machine learning, enable technological
breakthroughs in nearly every sector, leading to increased economic growth and
greater prosperity; and

W
hereas, ensuring the
United States remains at the forefront of computational technology is critical
for driving economic growth, safeguarding national security, and retaining a
competitive edge over adversarial nations; and

W
hereas, while
recognizing the benefits of recent innovations in computational technologies,
technology industry leaders have also expressed concern that some applications
of powerful computational resources may pose a high risk to public health and
safety; and

W
hereas, federal and
state governments increasingly propose far-reaching restrictions on the ability
to privately own or make use of computational resources for lawful purposes,
some of which may infringe on fundamental constitutional rights to property and
free expression; and

W
hereas, the South
Carolina General Assembly is the proper branch of government to establish
policies and principles relating to the ability to own and make use of
computational resources within the context of state constitutional provisions.
Now therefore,

B
e it enacted by the
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

S
ECTION 1.
This act may be cited as the "Right to Compute Act."

S
ECTION 2. The
General Assembly finds that the right to acquire, possess, and protect property
and freedom of expression, as protected by the South Carolina Constitution,
also embodies the notion of a fundamental right to own and make use of
technological tools, including computational resources. Any governmental
restriction placed on the ability to privately own or make use of computational
resources for lawful purposes must be limited to those demonstrably necessary
and narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling governmental interest.

S
ECTION 3.
T
itle 1 of the S.C. Code is amended by adding:

C
HAPTER 35

R
ight to Compute

S
ection
1-35-10
.
F
or purposes of this chapter, the following
definitions apply:

(
1)
"Artificial intelligence system" means any machine learning-based system that,
for any explicit or implicit objective, infers from the inputs the system
receives how to generate outputs including, but not limited to, content,
decisions, predictions, and recommendations that can influence physical or
virtual environments.

(
2)
"Compelling governmental interest" means a governmental interest of the highest
order in protecting the public that cannot be achieved through less restrictive
means. This includes, but is not limited to:

(
a)
ensuring that a critical infrastructure facility controlled by an artificial
intelligence system develops a risk management policy;

(
b)
addressing conduct that deceives or defrauds the public;

(
c)
protecting individuals, especially minors, from harm by a person who
distributes deepfakes and other harmful synthetic content with actual knowledge
of the nature of that material;

(
d)
taking actions that prevent or abate common law nuisances created by physical
datacenter infrastructure.

(
3)
"Computational resources" means any tools, technologies, systems, or
infrastructure, whether digital, analog, existing, or some other form, that
facilitate any form of computation, data processing, storage, transmission,
manipulation, control, creation, dissemination, or use of information and data.
This includes, but is not limited to, hardware, software, algorithms, sensors,
networks, protocols, platforms, services, systems, cryptography, machine
learning, or quantum applications.

(
4)
(
a) "Critical artificial intelligence"
means an artificial intelligence system that is designed and deployed to make,
or is a substantial factor in making, a consequential decision.

(
b)
"Critical artificial intelligence" does not include:

(
i)
an artificial intelligence system that is intended to:

(
A)
perform a narrow procedural task;

(
B)
improve the result of a previously completed human activity;

(
C)
perform a preparatory task to an assessment relevant to a consequential
decision; or

(
D)
detect a decision-making pattern or a deviation from a preexisting
decision-making pattern;

(
ii)
antifraud, antimalware, antivirus, calculator, cybersecurity, database, data
storage, firewall, internet domain registration, internet website loading,
networking, robocall filtering, spam filtering, spell checking, spreadsheet,
web caching, web hosting, or search engine technologies or similar
technologies; or

(
iii)
a technology that communicates in natural language for the purpose of providing
users with information, makes referrals or recommendations, answers questions,
or generates other content and that is subject to an acceptable use policy that
prohibits the generation of unlawful content.

(
5)
"Critical infrastructure facility" has the same meaning as provided in 42
U.S.C. Section 5195c(e).

(
6)
"Deployer" means an individual, company, or other organization that utilizes an
artificial intelligence system.

(
7)
"Governmental action" means any law, ordinance, regulation, rule, policy,
condition, test, permit, or administrative practice enacted by a governmental
entity that restricts the common or intended use of computational resources by
its owner or invitees.

(
8)
"Governmental entity" means any unit of state or local government, including
the State, a county, city, town, municipality, or political subdivision thereof,
and includes any branch, department, division, office, or governmental entity
of state or local government.

S
ection
1-35-20
. When critical infrastructure facilities are controlled in whole or in
part by a critical artificial intelligence system, the deployer shall develop a
risk management policy after deploying the system that is reasonable and
considers guidance and standards in the latest version of the artificial
intelligence risk management framework from the National Institute of Standards
and Technology, the ISO/IEC 4200 artificial intelligence standard from the International
Organization for Standardization, or another nationally or internationally
recognized risk management framework for artificial intelligence systems. A
plan prepared under federal requirements constitutes compliance with this
section.

S
ection
1-35-30
. A governmental action that restricts the ability to privately own or
make use of computational resources for lawful purposes, which infringes on a
citizen's fundamental right to property and free expression, must be limited to
an action demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling
interest.

S
ection
1-35-40
. Nothing in this chapter may be construed to alter, diminish, or
interfere with the rights and remedies available under federal or state
intellectual property laws including, but not limited to, patent, copyright,
trademark, and trade secret laws.

S
ection
1-35-50
. Nothing in this chapter may be construed to preempt federal law.

S
ECTION 4. If any section, subsection,
paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this act is for
any reason held to be unconstitutional or invalid, such holding shall not
affect the constitutionality or validity of the remaining portions of this act,
the General Assembly hereby declaring that it would have passed this act, and
each and every section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, sentence, clause,
phrase, and word thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more other
sections, subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases,
or words hereof may be declared to be unconstitutional, invalid, or otherwise
ineffective.

S
ECTION 5. This act takes effect upon approval
by the Governor.

----XX----

This web page was last updated on January 13, 2026 at 2:38 PM