After-dark predictions from a former OpenAI and Anthropic employee last week have prompted some lawmakers to call for more oversight, while others claim the predictions are exaggerated.
With AI's rise over the past year, regulatory debates have dominated Capitol Hill, but with just one week left before lawmakers return home until after the midterms, some are confident Congress can still take action.
In an interview with POLITICO, Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) said the uncertainty of new-age technology is understandably causing a great deal of anxiety for voters.
“They don’t know what their life’s going to look like,” Rep. Roy said. “They’re being told that we need to have all these data centers and invest in those, and whatever that means, whatever the impact is, don’t worry, it’ll be better, and there’ll be plenty of water, there’ll be plenty of electricity.”
This comes just days after Jacob Coxon, a former employee of the AI firm Anthropic and OpenAI, came out and said those developing AI technology “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
“Neither company is acting responsibly,” Coxon said. “They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei shared similar concerns in an interview with CBS News on Sunday, warning that the rapid advancement of AI poses serious risks and that the industry should slow down.
President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post on Monday that the only AI guardrails needed are a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.”
“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ — and we will continue to do so!” Trump wrote. “We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!”
Although Rep. Roy said he is still not entirely sure where lawmakers fit into this debate, he said safeguards are definitely needed.
“If everything is digitized and AI is sort of running things, if everything goes sideways, what do I do?” Rep. Roy asked. “We have to be philosophical about what it means to live.”
