State of play: Rather than leading the charge to persuade Americans of the benefits of AI and the potential for shared prosperity – essential elements of any winning political campaign – industry leaders are constantly warning of its existential dangers.
What they say: Lawmakers say AI executives’ message too often alternates between prosperity and doom, sometimes in the same public appearances. The boost adds to political instability in the face of an already powerful public backlash, lawmakers and regulators say.
- “It’s obvious they’re tripping over their own shoelaces trying to sell the value of this to the public,” Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) told Axios. “It is very difficult to imagine a group today that operates more in isolation, more disconnected from ordinary Americans than the AI industry.”
- “CEOs like Sam Altman are saying the world should accept that bad things happen to reap the benefits of this technology,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Axios. “You can’t trust billionaires to make decisions to keep us safe.”
- “Your instinct is to wreak havoc on IS’s public discourse,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said in a letter to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei earlier this month, complaining about Amodei’s “panic-inducing comment.”
Democrats also paid close pay attention to the extent to which top AI and technology leaders have moved closer to President Trump. Many see the opportunity to turn AI blunders into an easy political victory.
- “The American people hate that Donald Trump is cozying up to tech billionaires, while AI threatens our jobs and livelihoods,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) told Axios. “Democrats must make political money from the AI industry an issue, data centers an issue, and go on the offensive to protect workers and children.”
The big picture: Friday night news and subsequent weekend blog posts have become the bread and butter of Anthropic and OpenAI.
- Regulators debate whether this is a feature or a bug: deliberate attempts to quietly correct damaging narratives before IPOs, or the work of inexperienced teams struggling to navigate Washington.
- “We can all speculate about what’s going on, but everyone wakes up Monday morning and says ‘these guys are horrible, we’ve had enough,'” a source said, citing conversations with Hill’s office.
Behind the scenes: Administration officials are once again unhappy with Anthropic, for two reasons.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei attended a meeting with Trump in late September but did not disclose security incidents involving Anthropic models that affected government websites. The company informed US authorities about it on Thursday October 8, then published a blog post on Friday evening about it.
- “They were hiding the ball,” an official told Axios.
- Then the company added to the confusion with an AI safety bill that included something the company largely opposed: federal preemption of state AI laws. It also defined a catastrophic AI incident as one that caused 50 or more deaths, prompting backlash.
- Anthropic’s public affairs chief has since backed out of parts of the bill, sparking growing distrust from Washington given the topsy-turvy nature of the company’s advocacy.
Anthropic says it has informed the The White House and relevant agencies on security incidents once their reviews are completed, and it is working with the Super Intelligence Force to develop an incident reporting process.
- The industry is pushing for more clarity on incident reporting, and AI companies don’t view the administrative process as straightforward.
- Provisions defining AI disaster in terms of death are among landmark regulations in the state of California and elsewhere, according to Politico.
Zoom: Washington’s problems with AI executives also extend to OpenAI, and both companies are targets of an ongoing FTC investigation.
- OpenAI’s legislative strategy has also raised eyebrows on the Hill and in state legislatures. In response to a blog post by Chris Lehane, the company’s director of global affairs, Alex Bores (D), a New York state assemblyman and computer scientist, said OpenAI’s policy proposals are vague and that the company ultimately wants to prevent states from regulating.
- An OpenAI spokesperson said the company has engaged with both parties, the administration and states across the country. The company is “talking to people across the country” about the benefits of AI.
Reality check: These efforts have so far failed to win hearts and minds, with another recent poll showing that a majority of Americans view AI as bad for society.
The bottom line: For AI CEOs, the lesson is increasingly clear: do less.
Stef W. Kight of Axios contributed reporting.
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