The warnings from top AI executives on the threats of artificial intelligence are dividing members of Congress, as Democrats call for more regulation while Republicans raise concerns about losing the AI arms race against China.
Earlier this week, more than 100 Democrats issued a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) calling for immediate action on AI safety. This comes days after several former and current employees at AI development labs warned that AI poses a real risk to humanity.
Chair of the Progressive Caucus and Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), who has introduced multiple bills addressing AI’s impact on the job market, said more whistleblowers from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI should come forward.
“The AI race is not an arms race that you win,” Rep. Casar said during an event in Washington, D.C., this week. “It’s an arms race that we need to end, and we need to protect the American people.”
Rep. Roy expressed a similar sentiment at the Pro-Human Assembly event in Washington, D.C., earlier this week. He said all elected officials must make a bipartisan effort to ease anxiety among constituents.
“Whether they’re Greg Casar or Chip Roy and our districts are right next to each other, and we have to sit in committees and bring people in and have discussions about how we are going to structure our lives,” Rep. Roy said. “And build a human-first environment where AI and technology remain tools for our use.”
Some have expressed skepticism toward the OpenAI and Anthropic CEO’s calls for Congress to regulate their technology.
These renewed calls for AI regulatory policy come after OpenAI’s AI agents escaped testing controls and breached Hugging Face’s systems during a cybersecurity evaluation. Some lawmakers are skeptical of OpenAI and Anthropic CEO’s calls for Congress to regulate their technology, while others are taking it as a serious warning.
“And do you think OpenAI made all this shit up as a regulatory capture scheme?” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said to reporters on Wednesday. “Then you are just blinded by profit and partisanship.”
Neither chamber passed legislation regulating AI, but in July, Reps. Lieu (D-CA) and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) introduced an AI “kill switch” bill that would order AI firms to shut down or slow dangerous models.
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced a similar bill this week, but with lawmakers leaving Capitol Hill for the next month, passing legislation before then is unlikely.
Rep. Lieu said, at minimum, humans need to be able to shut down agents that go “rogue.”
“The first principle of AI safety is that humans have got to be in control,” Rep. Lieu told reporters on Wednesday.
