Dem leaders warn against AI companies policing themselves: ‘We need Congress to act’

Top House Democrats warned Tuesday that AI companies can’t be trusted to regulate themselves, arguing that the federal government will have to step in with industry-wide rules designed to ensure public safety.

“This is not an industry that can regulate itself,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Capitol. “We have the ability, and we should be regulating them and putting sensible guardrails to protect consumers while supporting an innovation economy.”

The remarks clash with the message coming from top Republicans, who say members of Congress are simply not equipped to regulate the AI industry on their own, given the sheer complexity of the technology that makes AI tick.

“Congress is obviously less qualified than the people who are pushing this frontier to know all the ins and outs of it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

Johnson wants to sit down with AI leaders as early as this week to gauge their view of potential restrictions and Congress’s role in installing them.

Democrats say the Speaker’s position is a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse. They want the House, which is scheduled to leave Washington this week for a long midterm break, to remain in town to hash out legislation that prioritizes public safety.

“We have an obligation to protect the American public, and that’s what we should be doing by creating guardrails and rules of the road,” Aguilar said. “This is our job. If we’re not up to speed, then it’s on each member to get up to speed. And it’s unfortunate that the Speaker thinks so low of this institution.”

The concerns surrounding AI have exploded in recent days in the wake of a public statement from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who warned that AI technology is moving faster than the industry’s capacity to control it. He said Anthropic will voluntarily slow down that development, and urged other companies to do the same or risk a global catastrophe.

Two other titans of the AI world, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, endorsed Amodei’s message.

The warning has caused an uproar on Capitol Hill, where Democrats, and some Republicans, are calling for immediate action to adopt new AI safeguards.

President Trump, however, has rejected the idea of adopting tougher rules for the industry, arguing that such limits would disadvantage American companies in the race for global AI dominance.

“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump wrote Monday on X . “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”

Democrats acknowledge that any regulations adopted by Congress would not extend beyond America’s borders. With that in mind, Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.), the vice chairman of the House Democratic Congress, urged Trump to press Chinese leaders to commit to a ban on AI systems launching nuclear weapons, which became law in the U.S. in the last Congress.

“There are things that we can do to get other countries to follow the lead the U.S. has taken in AI,” Lieu said.

In the meantime, Lieu called on all AI companies to follow Anthropic’s example and tap the brakes on development.

“Until they can make their AI models and agents safe, so they don’t go rogue or go hack other companies, they need to slow down their development and put in adequate guardrails,” Lieu said.

“And we cannot expect the industry to regulate itself. We need Congress to act.”