United States of America: South Carolina Artificial Intelligence Act (S 963) introduced to Senate including testing and documentation requirements

On 26 February 2026, the South Carolina Artificial Intelligence Act (S 963) was introduced to the Senate to mandate technical documentation and impact assessments for high-risk artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The Act requires developers to provide deployers with model cards, dataset cards, and performance evaluations to facilitate comprehensive testing. Deployers are obligated to complete initial and annual impact assessments that analyse the purpose, input data, and output metrics of the system, alongside post-deployment monitoring results. These assessments must be maintained for three years following the final deployment of the system. The Attorney General is authorised to request these documents for compliance review, though they remain exempt from public disclosure under freedom of information laws to protect trade secrets. Enforcement is managed by the Attorney General, and entities may use a rebuttable presumption of reasonable care if they adhere to recognised frameworks such as NIST's AI Risk Management Framework or ISO/IEC 42001. Violations of these testing standards constitute unfair trade practices, though the Act provides an affirmative defence for entities that discover and cure violations through internal red-teaming or review processes before enforcement actions commence. The Act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.