Few US lawmakers are taking action to regulate AI, as many struggle to understand the technology and its dangers, unlike the EU which proposed AI rules in 2021
Tech innovations are again racing ahead of Washington's ability to regulate them, lawmakers and A.I. experts said. Tweets: @reptedlieu , @neilturkewitz , @geomblog , @cademetz , @ceciliakang , @pstasiatech , @kbandersen , @jonathancohn , @marcowenjones , @ainowinstitute , and @marcportermagee Tweets: Rep. Ted Lieu / @reptedlieu : AI is going to advance dramatically in the next few years. Right now, it's like the horse-drawn wagon. In a few years, it'll be a jet airplane with a personality. The fourth industrial revolution is here. We need to be ready for it. More in @nytimes: https://www.nytimes.com/... Neil Turkewitz / @neilturkewitz : A question—given that “not regulating” is a decision just as much as regulating, is the limited understanding of members of lawmakers sufficient to warrant maintenance of the status quo? Inaction is a choice. A bad one. @ceciliakang @satariano https://www.nytimes.com/... @geomblog : This article by @ceciliakang and @satariano correctly identifies the knowledge gap on AI in Congress. But there's more to it than that. 1/n, n=7 As A.I. Booms, Lawmakers Struggle to Understand the Technology https://www.nytimes.com/... Cade Metz / @cademetz : “The problem is that most lawmakers do not even know what A.I. is, said Representative Jay Obernolte, a California Republican and the only member of Congress with a master's degree in artificial intelligence.” @ceciliakang and @satariano sum it up: https://www.nytimes.com/... Cecilia Kang / @ceciliakang : A.I. Races Forward as Washington Falls Behind “You'd be surprised how much time I spend explaining to my colleagues that the chief dangers of A.I. will not come from evil robots with red lasers coming out of their eyes” w/ @satariano https://www.nytimes.com/... Paul Triolo / @pstasiatech : We call this regulatory lag... As A.I. Booms, Lawmakers Struggle to Understand the Technology https://www.nytimes.com/... Kurt Andersen / @kbandersen : “Jay Obernolte, the only member of Congress with a master's in artificial intelligence: 'You'd be surprised how much time I spend explaining to colleagues that the chief dangers of A.I. will not come from evil robots with lasers coming out of their eyes.'"https://www.nytimes.com/ ... @jonathancohn : “The inaction over A.I. is part of a familiar pattern, in which technology is again outstripping U.S. rule-making and regulation. ” https://www.nytimes.com/... @marcowenjones : In ten years I'm sure there will be a hearing where a congressman asks what the revenue model of AI is and how many AI robots there are https://www.nytimes.com/... @ainowinstitute : “The stakes are high because these tools are used in very sensitive social domains like in hiring, housing and credit, and there is real evidence that over the years, A.I. tools have been flawed and biased.” — Amba Kak in @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... Marc Porter Magee / @marcportermagee : “The problem is that most lawmakers do not even know what A.I. is, said Representative Jay Obernolte, a California Republican and the only member of Congress with a master's degree in artificial intelligence” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This March 2023 piece lands early in the AI-regulation arc the related coverage traces: the EU had proposed its rules back in 2021, while US lawmakers — many without AI expertise — were still struggling to grasp the technology. Within weeks of this article, consumer advocates and the tech industry were converging on Washington to lobby a Congress short on AI know-how, a sign that the legislative vacuum was already being filled by interested parties.
The White House moved into the gap two months later with a $140M research-investment plan and draft AI-safeguard guidelines for federal agencies, and by late 2023 the knowledge deficit had been documented as a global phenomenon among lawmakers, not just an American one. The throughline: in the US, executive action and lobbying, not legislation, became the default regulatory channel.
First-order effects
- Congress stays on the sidelines while lobbyists and advocates compete to shape the frame for lawmakers who lack AI expertise, tilting the drafting process toward whichever side shows up first.
Second-order effects
- The White House substitutes executive measures — research funding and agency guidelines — for legislation, and industry voices like Box CEO Aaron Levie seize the moment to argue the US should not rush the way the EU did, pushing the transatlantic rulebooks further apart.
Third-order effects
- If congressional inaction persists, AI governance in the US settles into a patchwork of executive orders, agency guidance, and state-level politics — a split already visible in the Democratic Party's rift over AI and data centers between pro-business and progressive wings.
The trend: US AI policy is drifting toward executive action and lobbying-shaped frameworks while the EU's 2021 proposal sets a separate legislative benchmark, widening the transatlantic governance split.