Billionaire-backed AI safety activists have expanded their Capitol Hill lobbying in the past year, with groups like ControlAI conducting hundreds of meetings
Inside the campaign to convince Washington that AI could end human life https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Washington Post
Context & Ripple Effects
AI longterm-risk advocacy already had institutional footholds: Open Philanthropy funded policy staff in Congress and federal agencies in 2023, while effective-altruism networks were reported to influence AI-regulation thinking in Washington. ControlAI’s reported meeting volume turns that earlier access into a more sustained lobbying presence.
The push arrives alongside a well-funded deregulatory counterweight: Innovation Council Action’s planned midterm spending is organized around advancing Trump’s AI agenda. AI policy is therefore becoming a contest between durable political operations, not solely a debate among technical experts.
First-order effects
ControlAI and allied AI-safety groups gain more opportunities to put catastrophic-risk arguments directly before congressional offices and shape the agenda for AI oversight.
Congressional staff face increasingly organized, competing input: safety advocates pressing for restrictions and Innovation Council Action backing deregulation.
Second-order effects
Pro-AI political groups have an incentive to sharpen their own Capitol Hill operations and frame safety restrictions as conflicts with their preferred AI agenda.
If both camps sustain this spending and access, US AI governance is likely to be set more by organized interest competition than by ad hoc expert consultation.
The bipartisan visibility of AI-risk arguments may broaden the coalition for oversight, while making the specific form of any rules more contested.
The trend: AI policy is evolving into a state-mediated contest between organized safety advocates and pro-deployment political networks.
This is bad, incomplete reporting that Googling #TESCREAL would fix: These doomer “movements” & funders have roots in eugenics. That's the story. — Inside the campaign to convince Washington that AI could end human life https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
I've been covering politics since 2008. The anti-AI-regulation takes from the left (by no means all/most of the left; Bernie disagrees!!!) might be the most literally incomprehensible political position I've ever encountered.
The Bernie left's “these people belong in prison” vs the other left's “the risk talk is just cover for ai being a flop” is the biggest intra far left divide I've seen in as long as I can remember
didn't even realize this was an FTL situation. the guy from there tried to convince me in november 2024 that optical computing would be how they solve AI costs
Fun story: I had dinner with Steve Bannon once (think ~2018) and asked him about why he was really so anti-China. Can remember him saying it was primarily driven by his fears around Chinese AI and how it must be stopped (!)
“If AI surpasses human intelligence, as many scientists believe could happen, this technology will escape human control with potentially catastrophic consequences.” Sen. Bernie Sanders warned of the “alarming threat” of artificial intelligence and called for more AI regulation.
If I had as much time as leftist men do to count other people's tweets, I'd be tallying how many times they posted about Kamala Harris campaigning with Liz Cheney for two days versus Bernie Sanders joining a coalition with Steve Bannon.
Dario is not a divisive figure. He is a highly uniting figure. Who else in this world could unite Trump, Xi, Jensen, David Sachs, majority of the US AI industry, and the entire Chinese AI ecosystem on one side; and Bernie & Bannon on the other? Huge achievement.
So, all the closed-source AI bros are now promoting the idea that AI could absolutely kill all of us. Meanwhile, Jacob Coxon, supposed Anthropic and OpenAI whistleblower - supported by Dario Amodei! - is joining up with Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon to talk about restricting A…
Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon are sharing a stage in DC today to warn about the dangers of losing control of AI. I signed the Pro-Human AI Declaration right along with them. But that doesn't mean I agree with everything Sanders says, especially his proposal to imprison AI devel…
The Pro-Human Assembly, bringing together Steve Bannon and Sen. Bernie Sanders, is about to start here in Washington. AI criticism continues to pick up steam here in Washington.
The AI companies warning that AI is moving ‘too fast’ are the same ones moving too fast...they can stop anytime. Today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: ‘They could stop anytime they want to. These people want you to give them regulatory sphere.’ This isn't about safety. …