Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said that 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."
The Louisiana Republican said 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 said. "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 said he would support 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 said.
Artificial intelligence concerns
Concerns about the potential harm from AI intensified recently 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, who 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 concerns during an appearance at a golf tournament in Ireland on Sept. 13, saying that "a lot of negative forces" are impacting the industry.
He previously said that U.S. communities should accept data centers unless they want to be "backwards and poor" and that "China could not be happier" about opposition to them.
Artificial intelligence central in midterms
Artificial intelligence development and infrastructure have become a key issue in the midterm elections, which political forecasters project as likely to oust Johnson from the speakership.
A Sept. 6 NBC News Decision Desk poll found that 69% of respondents oppose construction of AI data centers in their area. A Gallup survey released in May found 70% of Americans oppose building data centers in their communities, including 48% who said they strongly oppose them.
Multiple Democrats responded to Johnson's comments following the interview.
Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego compared the potential threat of AI to that of a nuclear weapon in following 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 said.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that he was "shocked" by congressional inaction on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"You know what’s moving quickly? AI is moving quickly," Buttigieg said. "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."
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on ABC's "This Week" that AI will have a "high priority" when the Democratic caucus meets this week.
"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 said.
Contributing: Joey Garrison and Greta Cross, USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House Speaker Johnson says Congress shouldn't lead AI safety efforts
