Johnson Deflects AI Regulation to Industry

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that artificial intelligence developers, not Congress, bear the responsibility for ensuring their products are safe, rejecting calls for a national moratorium on AI development during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union."

The Louisiana Republican acknowledged an "obvious corporate responsibility" among AI creators but argued that imposing regulations now would hurt American competitiveness. "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, citing a Sept. 12 social media post from White House advisor on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency David Sacks that placed the onus on industry leaders to protect the public. "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," he said.

In a separate interview with CNN, Johnson said he would support talks with tech leaders and argued Congress has already instituted AI guardrails. "There is an obvious corporate responsibility that the people who are creating these models have to ensure that their products are safe," he said, adding: "It's national security balanced with the immediate security of making sure the models are safe."

Industry Warnings and Political Divide

Johnson's comments came a day after top executives at three leading AI labs—Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, xAI CEO Elon Musk, and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman—urged the industry to slow the development of advanced AI models. The warning followed the departure of several researchers at Anthropic and Google who cautioned that capable AI systems "could kill us all by the end of the decade."

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." Amodei published an essay calling for greater precautions, comparing AI to curing cancer while acknowledging 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, Musk and Altman backed Amodei's call for more safeguards and a slowdown.

President Donald Trump, an advocate for AI development, dismissed such concerns. "Well I say this," Trump said Sunday during a visit to Ireland, "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. And we can put guardrails, and we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up, and they're bringing up things that won't happen."

Democratic Criticism

Following Johnson on CNN, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) suggested Johnson was naive about the dangers of the technology. "You know what's moving quickly? Technology," Gallego 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."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for decisive action, saying: "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."

The debate highlights a split in Congress over how to handle AI regulation, with many Republicans echoing concerns about falling behind China. Johnson, for his part, said he would meet with Amodei, Musk, and Altman on Monday if possible, and suggested a broader summit. "We've got to summon everybody together," he said. "I've talked to the president about this as well. They probably should be summoned together at the White House. And I think we need to go in a big room, close the door and sort this out. And I'll be the one pushing for it."