Senators probe whether RealPage pushed state AI law ban

Democratic senators are probing whether or not RealPage, a software program firm accused of colluding with landlords to boost rents, lobbied for a proposed ban on states regulating AI for the following decade. In a letter to RealPage CEO Dana Jones, 5 Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Tina Smith (D-MN) — ask for extra details about the corporate’s “potential involvement” in a provision hooked up to Republicans’ finances reconciliation invoice, which bars state laws that impact AI or “automated decision” systems for 10 years.

The senators argue that the availability might scuttle makes an attempt to cease RealPage from feeding delicate data from teams of landlords into an algorithm and utilizing it to suggest noncompetitive rental costs.

In 2022, a report from ProPublica linked RealPage to rising hire costs throughout the US, alleging that its algorithm permits landlords to coordinate pricing. The Division of Justice and eight states sued the company final yr, claiming it “deprives renters of the advantages of competitors on condo leasing phrases.” In the meantime, cities like Minneapolis, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco have handed legal guidelines meant to ban the usage of rent-setting software program, and a number of other states, together with Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington, have laws within the works.

Because it stands, the senators argue the Republican finances reconciliation invoice would block pending laws and cease states from implementing any regulation that places limitations on RealPage’s rent-setting algorithm. The invoice proposes preventing states from implementing “any regulation or regulation” overlaying a broad vary of automated computing programs, which might seemingly apply to the algorithms utilized by RealPage.

And whereas the moratorium’s most high-profile proponents are giants like OpenAI, lawmakers imagine RealPage might need spent hundreds of thousands pushing for it too. “In gentle of this, we search data on RealPage’s lobbying efforts, and on how the Republicans’ reconciliation provision would assist the underside line of RealPage and different giant companies by permitting them to benefit from shoppers,” the letter states.

The senators say RealPage “stepped up” its Congressional lobbying in response to native laws that might have an effect on its enterprise. They cite a report from The Lever, which discovered that the Nationwide Multifamily Housing Council, a commerce group that represents RealPage, elevated its lobbying spending from $4.8 million in 2020 to $9 million in 2024. The Lever additionally discovered that the commerce group disclosed that it lobbied on “points surrounding the dangers and alternatives posed by synthetic intelligence,” in addition to “federal insurance policies affecting utilization of information, synthetic intelligence, software program,” and different expertise utilized in actual property.

“RealPage ramped up its million greenback spending marketing campaign in Congress and lo and behold, Republicans in Congress handed a provision to dam states from defending renters,” Senator Warren instructed The Verge. “Individuals are being squeezed by rising rents, however as an alternative of serving to, Republicans try to offer a inexperienced gentle to RealPage’s rent-hiking algorithm.”

The Senators have requested RealPage how a lot cash the corporate spent on Congressional lobbying in annually since 2020, in addition to which companies and people it “engaged or contracted with” throughout the identical interval. Additionally they wish to know the way a lot it spent on lobbying focused towards AI laws, in addition to how RealPage could be impacted by the finances reconciliation invoice in states with pending laws on rent-setting software program. The senators ask RealPage to reply by June tenth, 2025.

If handed, the invoice — at present awaiting consideration within the Senate — might have far wider-ranging impacts than RealPage. Along with blocking states from regulating AI chatbots, it might additionally have an effect on any legal guidelines overlaying issues like deepfakes, automated hiring programs, facial recognition, sentencing algorithms, and extra.