And there are numerous legislative proposals already on Capitol Hill that are designed to address AI safety, ranging from independent reviews, to a federal "kill switch", to a total moratorium on data centres proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders. These diverging proposals point to a lack of consensus in Congress - but also an urgency among some lawmakers to take action.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune and his Democratic colleague Amy Klobuchar are working on a bill that would force some AI companies to submit to federal oversight." You don't want to stifle innovation," Thune said on Monday, "but I think you also want to make sure that the more advanced threats can be mitigated."

Some leading Republicans, including Speaker Johnson, have often referred to "self-regulation" when discussing government action and called on the companies to take responsibility for AI safety. One of Trump's top AI advisers, David Sacks, told the BBC's US partner CBS News on Monday that some of the existential warnings by insiders had been overblown.

" I think this is becoming a panic," he said." First and foremost, it is on them to make their products safe," Sacks said.

" They should tell us how they should do that. "" Why are you acting like this is something that you can't control?"

he said, referring to Anthropic's boss Dario Amodei, who has called for a slowdown in development. " If you can't control it, then don't do it."

Some experts share the view that, in the short-term at least, it is up to the AI companies to regulate themselves responsibly." You might want an act of Congress, and I would love a congressionally mandated regime that requires safety and testing and bias testing," said Asad Ramzanali, the director of AI & Technology Policy at Vanderbilt University.

" But absent that action, the companies have autonomy." Others have expressed scepticism at the recent flurry of warnings by AI staffers.

"" We're relying on the tweets of a half-dozen people who are all vying for perceived supremacy," he said. '" Alexandra Reeve Givens, who previously worked in government and now leads the US non-profit the Center for Democracy and Technology, said she did not think meaningful federal AI regulation would pass in the foreseeable future.

While the Trump administration has set up an entirely voluntary framework for AI companies to submit their models and tools for government assessment, Givens noted that the framework itself remains a secret." There's no clear standard to make sure that the approach is even grounded in the rule of law," she said.

Appeals from various groups to release the framework have so far gone ignored. The White House approach, combined with a lack of political will and consensus, makes passing laws around AI difficult."

There is no question that federal legislation is challenging in this climate, but Congress also has to grapple with which of the many types of AI risk need to be addressed," Givens said." It's not that AI is ungovernable, it's that each risk needs a tailored approach."

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