Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., was readying a long-shot attempt at regulating an industry that has, in recent weeks, spurred fears and anxiety about human annihilation.
He planned to ram through his bill, which would require artificial intelligence (AI) companies to have a kill switch for rogue AI, on the Senate floor. But his attempt Wednesday night was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. He told Fox News Digital that he feared there was little desire from Republicans to do anything to regulate AI.
"There's no appetite in my caucus to do anything that I can say," Kennedy said.
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Paul contended the following day that regulating something "so pervasive as AI throughout our economy" would require hearing from people who are involved in the industry and having a debate over the regulatory structure.
"I think it would be crazy to get on the floor one day and regulate an entire industry," Paul told reporters.
Still, the anxiety over the unfettered evolution of AI has spread like wildfire after reports that rogue bots began acting on their own, but it's an issue that Congress has had years to address.
Three years ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N. Y., who was then leading the Senate when Democrats had control under former President Joe Biden, met with lawmakers and Big Tech CEOs to sketch out an AI roadmap. Since then, Congress hasn’t taken legislative action to add guardrails to AI development.
Now, with fears ramping up that AI could wipe out humanity in a decade, and with reports of rogue AI agents scheming privately and attacking other AI, lawmakers are again taking notice.
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But some wonder whether this time Congress will take action to regulate AI, or if it’s turning a growing problem into another political issue to be debated and ignored.
"It's already a political issue," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told Fox News Digital. "Donald Trump has said it's not a problem, and that is like a dead weight loss on every one of the Republican senators or representatives."
"Thus far, the courage they have demonstrated in standing up to Donald Trump on anything has been somewhere around zero," she continued.
Warren had just left a closed-door meeting led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has pushed for a ban on superintelligent AI, held with lawmakers and with AI experts Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "Godfather of AI," physicist Max Tegmark and Ajeya Cotra.
"There is now a growing alarm about the future of humanity and creating technology that human beings cannot control," Sanders told reporters. "And I'm happy to tell you that I think there is a growing sense of urgency upon members of Congress that this has to be done."
One of the points the experts impressed on lawmakers was that, at the very least, a kill switch should be implemented to deactivate rogue AI. Kennedy was the lone Republican to attend that meeting.
"I'm just saying they have to have a kill switch to turn the son of a b---- off if it goes wrong," Kennedy said. "This doesn't put government in charge in any way. It doesn't affect innovation. It just says, if you're gonna sell this thing in America that has the potential to turn into an independent species, like the 'Terminator,’ you've got to have a way to shut it down immediately, as soon as you discover that."
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But there have been Republicans, like Kennedy, who want to regulate AI sooner rather than later.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S. D., has been pushing his regulatory bill alongside Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., since 2023. But Thune argued to Fox News Digital that it was Democrats standing in the way.
"I think the Democrats, in my view, clearly are trying to politicize this. I mean, all the rhetoric around it and everything else, and stuff like that. But you know, the truth is, the bill, which we have, that addresses the AI issue, which we worked on for a long time, which actually passed the Commerce Committee in 2024, is available with modifications and updates. It reflects what's happened since the last time they passed it in our committee."
"The obstacle to getting it up and going and getting it filed is Democrats," he continued. "So if they're looking for a legislative vehicle, there is one out there."
Meanwhile, Warren said she could see herself supporting a kill switch, but that Hinton made the case that the switch would need a human to flip it, "and a smart AI will persuade a human being not to do it."
"They will create enough evidence, enough of a narrative, that no one will ever throw the kill switch," Warren said. "Which is back to the point I was raising, so where are the places that you act?"
She argued that Congress needed to find the "pinch points" where humans could still have agency to stop rogue AI, but for now, there wasn’t a real desire to find a new regulatory and enforcement tool to do so.
"There are things we say are illegal. We have a mechanism for how to enforce the laws that say, ‘don't do that,’" Warren said. "It's not perfect, but we have it. We need a whole new enforcement device now, and nobody seems to be thinking through what that looks like."