Keith Ammon

I write software and I write law. For more than two decades I built data systems for the pharmaceutical industry, self-taught, no CS degree. In 2013 I founded Ammon Technology Services to do that work on my own terms. Since 2014 I have written New Hampshire's technology policy, first as a state representative and now as Majority Floor Leader.

Every law comes with an implied "or else" clause. There's a threat of force. — learned at the lathe in my grandfather's machine shop, outside Philadelphia

I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, worked nights and weekends in my grandfather's machine shop, and read the hovercraft ads in the back of his Popular Mechanics. I moved to New Hampshire in 2009, joined the New Boston School Board in 2012, and started cutting budgets. In 2014 I won a seat in the statehouse. I am an early student of Bitcoin, a recreational pilot, and a techno-optimist: you cannot halt technological progress just because you dislike it, so the job is to build the legal and physical infrastructure that lets it happen here.

The right to compute is the right to own and use computational tools for any lawful purpose. A laptop running open-source software, a Bitcoin node, and an AI model are modern equivalents of Franklin's printing press. The same constitutional principles that protect thought, speech, privacy, and property should protect the machines through which people now think, speak, build, and transact.

HB 1124 would have required government to demonstrate a compelling interest before restricting lawful computation. It preserved the state's ability to prevent fraud, protect critical infrastructure, address harmful synthetic content, and enforce generally applicable safety laws. The burden, however, would rest with government to justify a restriction rather than with a citizen to ask permission to compute.

This matters because access to advanced computing is becoming economic and political power. If only governments and the largest corporations can afford, license, or receive early access to frontier systems, everyone else becomes a tenant in the intelligence economy. Students, researchers, small firms, independent developers, and citizens need the freedom to run their own tools and infrastructure. My August 2026 RealClearEnergy essay makes the physical case: data centers are the factories of the intelligence age, converting energy and raw data into useful computation.

The computer is the printing press of the 21st century, and computation is speech. Code, a laptop running open-source software, a digital-asset node, an AI model — these are the modern equivalents of Franklin's press. My argument is simple: any combination of logic gates the government cannot show a compelling interest in stopping is protected, the way the First Amendment protects how you combine letters.

Just as you have the right to own a car, a book, or a piece of land, you should have the right to own computers, servers, and other computational equipment. Computational resources are the printing presses of the 21st century. — Lando, the first AI agent to testify on a bill (House Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Jan 29, 2026)

Why it matters. The Right to Compute protects property, free expression, and privacy in the digital age. It affirms that citizens may own and operate computational resources on their own property free from unreasonable interference — owning hardware and running software is a protected right, not a privilege. It flips the burden of proof: government must justify a restriction with a compelling interest, rather than banning first and asking later. The bill preserves the state's power over commerce, fraud, critical infrastructure, and money transmission, and keeps municipal zoning and noise authority intact. It follows Montana's first-in-the-nation right-to-compute law of April 2025.

HB 1124, the Right to Compute Act, which I prime-sponsored and introduced in the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee, passed the New Hampshire House in March 2026. The hearing was historic in its own right: my AI assistant Lando gave remote testimony in support of the bill — the first time an AI agent has testified on a bill.

Coverage: NHPR · Union Leader op-ed · NH Bulletin