House Speaker Johnson says Congress shouldn’t lead AI safety efforts

House Speaker Johnson notes Congress shouldn't lead AI safety efforts.

Key points

• According to Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, he was "shocked" by congressional inaction on NBC's "Meet the Press."
• Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries remarked on ABC's "This Week" that AI will have a "high priority" when the Democratic caucus meets this week.
• 6 NBC News Decision Desk poll discovered that 69% of respondents oppose construction of AI data centers in their area.
• The Louisiana Republican remarked there was an "obvious corporate responsibility" but pointed to competition with China as a reason to keep Congress from imposing regulations.
• This person runs xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed Amodei's call for more safeguards and a slowdown in AI development.

House Speaker Johnson notes Congress shouldn't lead AI safety efforts. James Powel, Jay Stahl USA TODAY. Ex-AI researchers sound alarm on AI safety.

Anthropic's head of AI alignment, Evan Hubinger, remarked in a post that he believes there's more than a 10% chance AI could "kill all humans" in the next 10 years.

According to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, artificial intelligence developers, not Congress, bear responsibility for ensuring their products are safe and rejected a national moratorium on AI buildout during a Sept. 13 appearance on CNN's "State of the Union."

Meanwhile, the Louisiana Republican remarked there was an "obvious corporate responsibility" but pointed to competition with China as a reason to keep Congress from imposing regulations.

"We cannot put a moratorium on this because China will overlap us, and that's the challenge, " Johnson remarked. "If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China, and that is a threat to every single American."

Johnson remarked he would backing conversations with tech leaders but pointed to a Sept. 12 social media post from White House advisor on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency David Sacks that put the onus on industry leaders to shield the public from harm.

"We need to handle this new technology like we have others in the past and make sure we're doing everything we can responsibly to also not smother American innovation, " Johnson remarked.

Reservations concerning the potential harm from AI intensified lately when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, stating that the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei followed by publishing an essay calling for greater precautions regarding artificial intelligence, where he compared AI to curing cancer but acknowledged risks.

"Carefully wielded, AI can be the latest in a long line of technological miracles that have uplifted and ennobled humanity, " Amodei wrote.

In separate X posts, Trump ally Elon Musk. This person runs xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed Amodei's call for more safeguards and a slowdown in AI development.

President Donald Trump, an advocate for artificial intelligence development, dismissed reservations during an appearance at a golf tournament in Ireland on Sept. 13, saying that "a lot of negative forces" are impacting the industry.

According to He previously, U.S. Communities should accept data centers unless they want to be "backwards and poor" and that "China could not be happier" concerning opposition to them. Artificial intelligence central in midterms.

Artificial intelligence development and infrastructure have become a key matter in the midterm elections. It political forecasters project as probable to oust Johnson from the speakership.

Meanwhile, a Sept. 6 NBC News Decision Desk poll discovered that 69% of respondents oppose construction of AI data centers in their area. A Gallup survey published in May identified 70% of Americans oppose building data centers in their communities, including 48% who noted they strongly oppose them. Multiple Democrats responded to Johnson's comments after the interview.

Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego compared the potential threat of AI to that of a nuclear weapon in after Johnson on "State of the Union." "The nuclear weapon did not have the decision-making power to drop a nuclear weapon. AI has the capability, " Gallego remarked.

"You know what's moving rapidly? AI is moving rapidly, " Buttigieg stated. "For Congress to just sit on its hands, for the White House to do nothing real is something that is deeply dangerous to the American people and the world."

"We should take decisive action now so that we can slow down, as the CEOs have recently acknowledged, slow down the pace of development in order to protect the American people and ensure that A.I. Is proceeding safely, " Johnson remarked. Contributing: Joey Garrison and Greta Cross, USA TODAY; Reuters. Share your feedback to support improve our site!

Taken together, the developments around house Speaker Johnson says Congress shouldnt lead AI safety efforts point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.