Mike Johnson rejects an emergency AI law and wants Amodei, Musk and Altman summoned to the White House
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday that Congress has already put AI guardrails in place and that the companies building the models are responsible for keeping them safe. He ruled out a halt because China would overtake the United States, said he would meet Dario Amodei, Elon Musk and Sam Altman on Monday if possible, and added that the three should be summoned together to the White House. Democrats had pressed him to reconvene the chamber at once.
Artificial Intelligence··Night
Johnson turns down an emergency session, citing the race with China
Democratic lawmakers last week pressed Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, to reconvene the chamber immediately and start work on AI regulation, citing what they call the catastrophic risk posed by advanced artificial intelligence. On Sunday the Louisiana Republican resisted that call on State of the Union, CNN's political interview programme. He said Congress has already instituted AI guardrails and that the people creating the models carry an obvious corporate responsibility to make their products safe. He ruled out any halt on the grounds that China would overtake the United States, and argued that an emergency session rushing to regulate AI would lose the race to China, which he called a threat to every single American.[1], [2]
A White House table for Amodei, Musk and Altman
In place of legislation, Johnson proposes bringing the industry and Congress to the same table: company leaders, he said, should meet with lawmakers to find balance in any guardrails. He said he would meet Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, Elon Musk, who owns xAI, and Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, on Monday if possible, and added that the three probably should be summoned together at the White House. In his account the first line of model safety sits with the developers themselves, while Congress looks for a balanced framework rather than a law that stops development.[1], [2]
Democrats and Utah's governor keep up the pressure
Across the other Sunday programmes the same day, the counter-arguments lined up. Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic politician, told NBC's Meet the Press he was shocked the Speaker was not moving faster. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego argued on CNN that a nuclear weapon never held the decision to drop itself while AI has that capability. Spencer Cox, the Republican governor of Utah, said on Face the Nation, another Sunday programme, that the possibility of an existential event is growing much more rapidly than anyone projected and that government has to get involved. Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the House Democrats, told ABC's This Week that his caucus meets on Tuesday with action on artificial intelligence a high priority, without naming the action.[1]
