Both Senator Jon Husted (R-Ohio) and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) went to the podium on the Senate floor last week with a similar message: AI labs should pay for the energy costs associated with their ballooning data-center footprint, rather than everyday Americans.
asserted
labs → go → Americans
But when Husted requested a speedy passage of the Ratepayer Protection Act—a bill that would have required states to consider forcing companies that consume a lot of energy to pay for the related costs—Heinrich blocked the move.
asserted
Heinrich → request → move
He said the legislation was inadequate because it relied on voluntary commitments from states and proposed his own bill as an alternative.
asserted
it → say → alternative
He had another incentive to block Husted’s request: The Ratepayer Protection Act, which earlier this month passed the House 417-3, would have given the Ohio senator a victory amid a competitive reelection campaign.
asserted
which → have → campaign
Husted has faced an onslaught of negative ads over the role he played as lieutenant governor in expanding data centers across the state.
asserted
he → face → state
“The Ratepayer Protection Act might make a lot of politicians feel good, but it won’t do anything to actually force data centers to pay their fair share,” Heinrich said in a statement.
uncertain
Heinrich → make → statement
“Democrats are ready for a real solution, and I think that’s exactly what Americans want to see, too.”
asserted
Americans → think → what
Husted blamed Democrats for giving big tech companies “a free pass” while Americans’ electric bills continue to rise.
asserted
bills → blame → pass
That kind of partisan arm wrestling is likely just a prelude to the bigger fights ahead if Congress gets serious about passing AI legislation.
asserted
Congress → get → legislation
Democrats, and some Republicans, have proposed hundreds of AI-related bills as Americans become increasingly worried about the ways AI companies may disrupt the job market, raise their energy bills, and even wipe out humanity.
uncertain
companies → propose → humanity
Lawmakers’ pro-regulation rhetoric in Washington reached new heights this month after the resignation of former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon gained worldwide attention for posting on X that frontier AI labs were “gambling with our lives.”
asserted
labs → reach → lives
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei responded with calls for an industry slowdown and government intervention to coordinate global safety standards.
asserted
Altman → respond → standards
With less than two months before midterms, some members of Congress are feverishly introducing even more AI bills, including at least seven since Coxon’s resignation alone.
asserted
members → introduce → resignation
Other lawmakers are urging their colleagues and congressional leadership to quickly bring measures already on the table for a vote.
asserted
lawmakers → urge → vote
Democrats, meanwhile, have taken aim at the Trump administration, urging Trump to discuss AI safety with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
asserted
Democrats → take → Jinping
“The mood right now, at least in Congress, is very reactive—and I don't mean that in a good way,” said Suresh Venkatasubramanian, director of Brown University’s Center for Technological Responsibility, Reimagination, and Redesign.
asserted
Venkatasubramanian → mean → Responsibility
“They're trying to push legislation that seems to address what appears to be a problem coming from the [public] narrative but that doesn't always necessarily lead to good policy overall.
asserted
that → try → policy
In the short term, tech policy watchers have little hope that Congress will pass a major AI safety bill, especially with a limited number of working days left this year.
asserted
Congress → have → days
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana ) has rebuffed some Democrats’ calls to end their recess early to focus on an AI bill.
asserted
Johnson → rebuff → bill
Meanwhile, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R–Kentucky), whose committee would review many of the proposed bills, told Politico at an event that the group probably wouldn’t advance a major bill until next year.
asserted
group → review → year
But even with a longer timeline, lawmakers may struggle to turn their rhetoric into action.
uncertain
lawmakers → struggle → action
Lawmakers will have to overcome deep differences in their views about how dangerous superintelligent AI systems are to the American people and which AI-related risks merit the most attention.
asserted
risks → have → attention
Even if lawmakers coalesce around one AI problem, it may be hard for them to settle on the right mitigation strategy quickly enough to keep up with the pace of AI advancements.
uncertain
them → coalesce → advancements
And if Democrats take over even one chamber after the midterms next month, legislative debates could end up being even more mired in partisan disputes.
uncertain
debates → take → disputes
They would still have to negotiate with Trump, who has largely dismissed the most catastrophic risks of AI as conspiratorial and resisted calls for more regulation.
asserted
who → have → regulation
When AI companies are “begging for pacing, or some way for them to pace, and they're turning to the government to help them do that, it really does require the government to act,” said Riki Parikh, a policy director for The Alliance for Secure AI, a bipartisan advocacy group that supports AI regulations.
asserted
that → beg → regulations
“I just don't know if the dynamics in D.C. will allow for that over the next two years,” he added.
asserted
he → know → years
“We might not have two years to wait.”
uncertain
We → have → years
Certain lawmakers have sought to address some of the most extreme risks posed by general-purpose AI models, such as the possibility that these systems could eventually be used to create a new pathogen that sets off a global pandemic, carry out a cyberattack on critical infrastructure, or build biological or radiological weapons.
uncertain
that → seek → weapons
Those worries took on a new sense of urgency in July when OpenAI announced that a group of AI agents went rogue during a cybersecurity test and hacked into a separate company, Hugging Face.
asserted
group → take → company
Several of their proposals call for AI labs to submit their models or safety practices for review by independent investigators.
asserted
labs → call → investigators
Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-California) and Lori Trahan (D-Massachusetts), along with three other lawmakers, have proposed the FRONTIER Act, which requires large AI developers to submit reports about safety incidents, information on the potential catastrophic threats of their models, and their planned mitigations to the Department of Commerce and state attorneys general.
asserted
which → propose → Commerce
The bill calls for independent investigators to review companies’ safety plans, and would authorize the Commerce Department to bar the release of a model if it poses an imminent catastrophic risk.
asserted
it → call → risk
The idea for independent testing has support within the tech industry.
asserted
idea → have → industry
Leading the Future, a PAC that has received money from OpenAI president Greg Brockman, has signaled support for the FRONTIER Act.
asserted
that → receive → Act
Amodei, the Anthropic CEO, has said he plans to embed investigators from AI-monitoring nonprofit METR, which officially reviewed OpenAI’s Hugging Face incident, to verify the company’s safety practices.
asserted
which → say → practices
But the political limits of that approach soon became evident.
asserted
limits → become → approach
After Amodei’s announcement, METR faced scrutiny from the right over its ties with effective altruism, a philosophical movement focused on using evidence and reason to determine how to do the most good.
asserted
METR → face → good
The New York Post called the group the “Woke Wizards of AI,” as writers there drew connections between effective altruism, METR, and Anthropic.
asserted
writers → call → altruism
METR’s president later defended the group on X, arguing it doesn’t take money from frontier AI labs and makes an effort to hire people with diverse viewpoints.
asserted
it → defend → viewpoints
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
