Washington races for AI rules as CEOs sound alarm — SkimNews
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- Anthropic researcher resigned warning AI could "kill us all by the end of the decade," prompting leaders of Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI to pledge to slow development and call on lawmakers to regulate the industry.
- House Democrats, led by Rep. Sam Liccardo, demanded Speaker Mike Johnson keep the chamber in session to pass bipartisan AI safeguards before the November midterms, warning Congress's inaction will be "inexplicable, and unforgivable."
- House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected an extended session, arguing that rushing AI regulation would let China overtake the U.S. and proposing instead a closed-door summit with AI executives "tomorrow" to self-police the industry.
- President Donald Trump, speaking in Ireland, said "whoever wins AI wins" and dismissed regulatory concerns as "negative forces" raising "things that won't happen," while insisting the U.S. leads China on AI.
- Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called the CEOs' warnings a "bright flashing red light" demanding that President Trump and Congress act now to ensure AI development "should not be steered exclusively by private entities."
- A bipartisan Senate bill from Majority Leader John Thune, Amy Klobuchar, and Ted Cruz remains unintroduced, though an industry source said legislation could emerge in the coming week with "real momentum" as lawmakers seek a midterm win.
Why it matters: The next test is whether Congress can deliver any AI safety legislation before the November midterms—an industry source reports "real momentum" for action, but Johnson has explicitly refused to extend the session, leaving bills like the FRONTIER Act and the unlaunched Thune-Klobuchar-Cruz measure in limbo even as frontier-AI CEOs publicly warn of catastrophic risk.
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