Congress faces artificial intelligence fears

The Hill - The House has just one week left on its calendar before November's midterm elections. Axios reported that members are urging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to cancel the recess until Congress can pass AI safeguards.  House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Sunday he supports immediate congressional action.

“We certainly need to begin to act urgently to address the challenges that exist,” Jeffries told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.”

…Johnson urged people not to panic and said lawmakers do not want to smother innovation. “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. So, we’ve got to have balance. We’ve got to have steady hands at the wheel,” Johnson told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday.

Trump sounded a similar note while speaking to reporters at his golf club in Doonbeg, Ireland, on Sunday, saying that guardrails can be installed, but he doesn't want to lose to China in the process.

“Well, I say this, we’re leading China on AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world and frankly I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins,” he said.

The debate comes after AI researchers and leaders took to social media to sound the alarm on the pace of AI growth.

Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher who also worked for OpenAI, warned on Tuesday that AI could soon destroy humanity.

"Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources," he wrote on social platform X.

"The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade," he added.

… Former President Obama sent a message to Jeffries at a private fundraiser on Thursday: “Once you are speaker, I would strongly urge that the Democrats put together a framework for a very public conversation,” he said, The New York Times reports.