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AI Laws in Shelbyville, Tennessee
As of 2026-07-14, AI Laws USA tracks 19 AI rules that apply to people and businesses in Shelbyville, Tennessee: 10+ federal protections, 8 Tennessee state-level rules, and 1 local Shelbyville ordinance. Coverage is strongest on consumer protection, data-center siting and energy, AI-generated images, and consumer data privacy. 9 of these rules are already in effect. Each entry below links to its official source.
Shelbyville local AI rules (and Bedford County)
1 local AI rule specific to Shelbyville, Tennessee or Bedford County.
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In effect Moderate protection
Shelbyville TN Data Center + Crypto Moratorium
Shelbyville, TN · Effective 2026-07-09 · Shelbyville, TN City Council data center and cryptocurrency mining moratorium (adopted July 9, 2026)
The Shelbyville City Council passed a temporary moratorium on data centers and cryptocurrency mining plants on July 9, 2026. The dual coverage — AI data centers and crypto mining in the same ordinance — reflects a pattern seen in several Tennessee communities where concerns about electricity use, water consumption, and noise apply equally to both types of large computing facilities. Shelbyville is the county seat of Bedford County in Middle Tennessee.
Tennessee-level AI rules
8 Tennessee state rules apply to residents and businesses in Shelbyville. Sorted strongest first.
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In effect Limited protection
TN HB 1847 data center ratepayer protection (2026)
TN · Effective 2026-07-01 · Tenn. HB 1847/SB 2128 (114th G.A., 2026) — signed May 7, 2026; eff. July 1, 2026
Tennessee HB 1847/SB 2128, signed May 7, 2026 and effective July 1, 2026, requires data centers drawing 50 megawatts or more of electricity to pay their proportionate share of transmission and distribution infrastructure costs, rather than spreading those costs across all utility ratepayers. The law prevents large hyperscale data centers from being cross-subsidized by ordinary residential and small commercial customers.
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In effect Moderate protection
ELVIS Act
Tennessee · Effective 2024-07-01 · Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 47-25-1101 to -1108 (ELVIS Act, 2024)
The first US law protecting voices from AI cloning: Tennessee added 'voice' to its right-of-publicity law, so using AI to mimic someone's voice or likeness without permission is both a civil violation and a crime. It also allows lawsuits against those who distribute tools whose primary purpose is producing unauthorized voice or likeness replicas.
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In effect Limited protection
TN SB 151 (2017 AV Act)
Tennessee · Effective 2017-07-01 · 2017 Tenn. Pub. Acts Ch. 474; Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 55-30-101 et seq.
Tennessee's Automated Vehicles Act authorized fully driverless operation on Tennessee roads, set minimum-insurance requirements for AV networks ($5 million coverage), explicitly preempted local AV-specific regulation, and treated the automated driving system as the legal operator for traffic-law purposes.
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In effect Limited protection
Tennessee SB 837 (AI is not a 'person' under TN law)
Tennessee · Effective 2026-04-23 · 2026 Tenn. Pub. Ch. 781 (SB 837); amends Tenn. Code Ann. Title 1
Tennessee amended its rules of statutory construction to make clear that artificial intelligence and related technology are not legal persons. The law specifies that the terms 'person,' 'life,' and 'natural person' do not include artificial intelligence, computer algorithms, software programs, computer hardware, or any type of machine. It also adds definitions of 'human being' and 'natural person' as living members of homo sapiens. The change is purely definitional and creates no penalty.
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In effect Limited protection
Tennessee SB 1580 (AI can't claim to be a mental health professional)
Tennessee · Effective 2026-07-01 · 2026 Tenn. Pub. Ch. 647 (SB 1580); enforced under Tenn. Code Ann. 47-18-101 et seq. (TCPA)
Tennessee makes it unlawful for anyone who develops or deploys an artificial intelligence system to advertise or represent to the public that the system is, or can act as, a qualified mental health professional. Violations are treated as unfair or deceptive acts under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. The law authorizes a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation, along with injunctive relief and damages, and includes a private right of action for affected individuals.
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In effect Limited protection
Tennessee HB 2163 (AI-generated child abuse images are illegal 'material')
Tennessee · Effective 2024-07-01 · 2024 Tenn. Pub. Ch. 911 (HB 2163); amends Tenn. Code Ann. Titles 39 & 40
Tennessee amended its child sexual exploitation statutes so that the definition of unlawful 'material' explicitly covers computer-generated images that were created, adapted, or modified using artificial intelligence. This closes a gap by making clear that AI-generated or digitally altered depictions of child sexual abuse are treated the same as other prohibited material. The law adds statutory definitions of 'artificial intelligence' and 'generative artificial intelligence' for this purpose.
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In effect Limited protection
Tennessee Information Protection Act (opt out of automated profiling decisions)
Tennessee · Effective 2025-07-01 · Tenn. Code Ann. 47-18-3301 et seq. (TIPA); profiling opt-out at 47-18-3304
Tennessee's consumer privacy law gives state residents rights over how businesses handle their personal information, including the right to opt out of profiling that is carried out solely through automated processing and used to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Businesses that act as controllers must also conduct and document data protection assessments for higher-risk processing activities, including certain profiling. The Tennessee Attorney General has exclusive enforcement authority, and there is no private right of action.
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In effect Moderate protection
TN drone trespass / FFUSA
Tennessee · Effective 2014-07-01 · Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 39-13-609, 39-13-902 to -905
Tennessee prohibits warrantless drone surveillance by law enforcement, makes it a misdemeanor for any person to capture images of an individual or private property from a drone without consent, and bars using drones to surveil critical infrastructure or fireworks/sporting events.
Federal AI rules that apply in Shelbyville, Tennessee
These federal protections apply everywhere in the United States, including Shelbyville, Tennessee. Showing the 10 strongest and most recent.
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In effect Stronger protection
Bartz v. Anthropic
N.D. Cal. · Effective 2025-09-05 · Bartz v. Anthropic PBC, No. 3:24-cv-05417 (N.D. Cal.)
Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson sued Anthropic over its use of pirated-book datasets to train Claude. In June 2025 Judge William Alsup ruled that training on lawfully purchased books was fair use. The piracy claims (LibGen ingestion) were not adjudicated to a final ruling — they proceeded toward settlement. In September 2025 Anthropic agreed to a $1.5 billion class settlement, though Judge Alsup denied preliminary approval without prejudice pending additional information on the claims protocol and attorney fees.
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In effect Stronger protection
Benavides v. Tesla (Autopilot)
S.D. Fla. · Effective 2025-08-01 · Benavides v. Tesla, Inc., No. 1:21-cv-21940 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 1, 2025)
A Florida federal jury found Tesla 33% liable in August 2025 for the 2019 death of Naibel Benavides Leon, in a crash involving Autopilot. The jury awarded $243M ($129M compensatory + $200M punitive); in February 2026 the court denied Tesla's post-trial motions and upheld the verdict in full — the first Autopilot wrongful-death verdict against Tesla.
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In effect Stronger protection
COPPA + 2025 Rule (childrens data)
United States · Effective 2025-06-23 · 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6506; 16 C.F.R. Part 312
COPPA requires online services aimed at children under 13 to get verifiable parental consent before collecting kids' personal data. The 2025 rule update — fully in effect since April 22, 2026 — adds biometric identifiers (like face templates and voiceprints, which matter for AI tools), requires separate parental consent before sharing children's data for targeted advertising, and tightens data retention limits.
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In effect Stronger protection
TAKE IT DOWN Act
United States · Effective 2025-05-19 · Pub. L. No. 119-12 (S. 146)
Makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish intimate images of someone without consent, including AI-generated deepfakes. Social media and similar platforms must give victims a way to request removal and must take the content (and known copies) down within 48 hours. The platform removal requirement became enforceable May 19, 2026, and the FTC has already begun enforcement.
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Blocked / in litigation Stronger protection
NetChoice v. Yost (Ohio)
S.D. Ohio · Effective 2025-04-16 · NetChoice, LLC v. Yost, No. 2:24-cv-00047 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 16, 2025)
Ohio's Social Media Parental Notification Act — requiring parental consent for minors' social-media use, including algorithmic feeds — was preliminarily enjoined on February 12, 2024, then permanently enjoined on April 16, 2025 when the district court granted summary judgment for NetChoice. The state appealed to the Sixth Circuit, which vacated the district court's injunction in 2026.
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In effect Stronger protection
Thaler v. Perlmutter (Copyright)
D.C. Cir. · Effective 2025-03-18 · Thaler v. Perlmutter, 130 F.4th 1039 (D.C. Cir. 2025)
The companion copyright case: Stephen Thaler sought to register a copyright with 'Creativity Machine' (his AI) as the author. The D.C. Circuit affirmed in March 2025 that the Copyright Act's human-authorship requirement is dispositive as a matter of statutory law. AI cannot be a copyright author under U.S. law.
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In effect Stronger protection
Thomson Reuters v. Ross
D. Del. · Effective 2025-02-11 · Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH v. Ross Intelligence, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-00613 (D. Del. Feb. 11, 2025)
Thomson Reuters sued legal-research startup Ross Intelligence in 2020 for copying Westlaw headnotes to train a competing AI legal-research tool. In February 2025, Judge Stephanos Bibas (sitting by designation) granted summary judgment to Thomson Reuters on direct copyright infringement and rejected Ross's fair-use defense — the first definitive U.S. ruling on AI-training fair use. No jury trial occurred: a 2023 opinion had denied summary judgment and pointed toward trial, but the court invited renewed briefing and reversed course in the 2025 ruling.
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In effect Stronger protection
Louis v. SafeRent
D. Mass. · Effective 2024-11-20 · Louis v. SafeRent Solutions, LLC, No. 1:22-cv-10800 (D. Mass.)
SafeRent agreed in November 2024 to a $2.275M settlement and a five-year ban on using its 'SafeRent Score' for housing-voucher applicants, after a class action alleged its AI tenant-screening tool systematically denied housing to Black and Hispanic Section 8 voucher holders. The first major AI tenant-screening Fair Housing Act settlement.
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In effect Stronger protection
FTC Impersonation Rule (AI)
United States · Effective 2024-04-01 · 16 C.F.R. Part 461; 89 Fed. Reg. 15017
The FTC's Impersonation Rule lets the agency directly sue scammers who pretend to be a government agency or a real business — including those who use AI-cloned voices or generated images to do so. Civil penalties can reach $53,088 per violation. The FTC also issued a supplemental notice in February 2024 proposing to extend the rule to all individual impersonation.
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In effect Stronger protection
TCPA (AI voice calls)
United States · Effective 2024-02-08 · 47 U.S.C. § 227; FCC 24-17
Robocalls using AI-cloned or AI-generated voices are treated like other 'artificial voice' calls: callers need your prior express consent, must identify themselves, and must offer opt-outs for telemarketing. You can personally sue violators for $500 to $1,500 per illegal call.
Frequently asked questions about AI laws in Shelbyville, Tennessee
Are there AI laws in Shelbyville, Tennessee?
What federal AI rules apply in Shelbyville?
Does Tennessee have an AI privacy law?
Are deepfakes illegal in Tennessee?
Can my employer use AI to screen me for jobs in Shelbyville?
How do I report an AI law violation in Shelbyville?
Are facial recognition cameras allowed in Shelbyville?
Is Shelbyville regulated by Tennessee's consumer privacy act?
Have we missed an AI rule in Shelbyville?
This page is generated from our open civic dataset. If you know of a Shelbyville ordinance, county rule, or local enforcement action we should add, email [email protected] or submit a correction. Every entry must include a verifiable source.