Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, told CNBC on Wednesday that new artificial intelligence products must undergo some “objective review” before being released.
The senator, who introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing AI safety risks, stressed that any new regulations must be targeted and sensitive to concerns that could hinder global competitiveness.
“I think there needs to be a balance here,” Blumenthal told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “But the important thing is that we are now on the verge of completely losing control,” he says.
The comments come as technology industry leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, are warning of the grave risks of rapidly advancing AI models and calling for a slowdown in technology development.
However, President Donald Trump vehemently criticized these concerns, calling them “a hoax” and a “fraud.” The administration insists that defeating China in the race for AI superiority is a vital goal.
Blumenthal, who has emerged as a prominent voice on AI safety, said he also worries that regulation could blunt America’s AI lead.
“We have to remain competitive,” he told CNBC.
But, he added, “China understands that AI can be a threat to its regime and therefore needs to be regulated.”
“Nobody wants a regulatory state. What we want is, in effect, some level of oversight to prevent autonomous rogue bots from getting out of the sandbox and into sites without the control of the responsible developer,” Blumenthal said.
The senator said the Food and Drug Administration’s drug regulatory model is similar to the AI debate.
“I think we need to delegate some of this responsibility to experts,” he said. “We are far from experts in Congress when it comes to AI, and I think we need to understand our own limitations in this area.”
He also warned of the consequences of delaying action.
“By the way, we should learn from the experience of social media, where algorithms have come out of the stable and fed harmful content to children, and we are still trying to catch up,” he said.
