After recent warnings on the potentially catastrophic risks of AI from the top voices in its development, Congress is scrambling to consider new regulations and safeguards for the rapidly developing technology.
House Speaker and Representative Mike Johnson (R-LA) said AI executives will be coming to the White House at some point in the next week to meet with him and President Trump, but with little time left on Capitol Hill, passing a bill this week does not seem likely.
During a Judiciary Committee hearing this week, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said AI executives’ warnings about the technology do not mean these companies should be granted greater control over government to protect its market positions.
“To watch AI CEOs saying, ‘We’re about to destroy the world so give us control of the government so we can lock in our monopoly status and prevent any innovators from challenging us,’ is just lunacy,” Sen. Cruz said. “And, by the way, if you’re about to destroy the world, how about, don’t. How about, stop.”
This comes after the CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI publicly stated that the rapid development of AI is dangerous, calling for the industry to slow its pace and strengthen safety measures.
But Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said he is skeptical of these dark predictions from AI leaders.
“I thought it was telling that Elon Musk's site ‘X’ investigated [and] found 200 Chinese bots that were responsible for sort of doomsday scenarios that were used to scare people when it came to AI,” Sen. Cornyn said.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel said there is a potential criminal use for AI models, but that the agency would pursue action in those specific cases.
“We need to go after the people who created these models that are going rogue with the specific purpose and intention to commit a criminal act,” Patel said.
Attorney General Todd Blanche added that it is not the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) job to regulate AI.
“If anybody associated with AI violates criminal law, we will investigate that,” Blanche said from the White House press podium. “I do not think it is the job of the Department of Justice to regulate. We’re prosecutors, not regulators.”
