Congress is under pressure to act on AI — here's what that could look like

Open AI CEO Sam Altman testified before Congress earlier this year. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP hide caption

This week, some in Congress seemed to discover a new urgency to act on the complicated task of AI regulation after a slew of grim warnings from industry leaders . The only issue: Most of them leave town this week until after the November election.

And they are not just short on time — they're short on consensus on whether regulation is even a task for Congress to tackle. Take, for example, the leaders of the parties in the House of Representatives.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday that "AI is serious. We do need to make sure that it's done safely but let's again let's apply common sense." He then called on the leaders of frontier AI labs to self-regulate.

"They don't need the government to tell them to slow it down. If they want to slow it down, they should," Johnson said. "But we cannot have a moratorium on the development of AI. Okay? Because then we will lose our edge to China and that has serious national security implications."

Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has taken a different tack.

"It requires decisive congressional action immediately in a manner consistent with what some of the leading AI voices in the country are now saying needs to happen as it relates to slowing things down to protect the health, the safety, and the well-being of the American people," Jeffries said Monday.

The issue also cuts across party lines. Steve Bannon, a key adviser to President Trump, and Vermont progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke separately at an event Tuesday in Washington, calling for the technology to be restricted.