Exclusive: Sens. Hawley, Murphy push AI liability as Trump backs self-regulation
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Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) are planning to introduce AI liability legislation as bipartisan efforts to regulate the technology persist on Capitol Hill.
Why it matters: While President Trump has made his administration's position abundantly clear — the industry should self-regulate — a growing number of congressional Republicans insist new laws are needed on the books.
The AI Agent Accountability Act will seek to hold companies criminally and civilly liable for hacking incidents, Axios has learned.
- The lawmakers argue that existing law leaves too much uncertainty over who can be held liable when an AI agent hacks a system.
- The approach is in stark contrast from administration officials, who say existing laws can address AI harms.
"As the president so noted, we have consumer protection laws. We have product liability laws," Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said Wednesday on Squawk Box.
- "We have the [Department of Justice]. We have architectures for dealing with developments in all of the verticals: transportation, energy, financial services, and the like," said Clayton, who Trump views as a good option for AI czar.
The big picture: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle aren't sold and continue to introduce bills.
- Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) have a bill that would require developers to have a mechanism for shutting down AI that poses catastrophic risk.
- Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) also introduced similar kill switch legislation.
- Many other bipartisan AI bills have been introduced around model testing, risk management, transparency and cybersecurity.
The key is Hill leadership.
- Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) was notably absent from a White House AI lunch this week. The Senate was still in session and he instead met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles there.
- Negotiations on his AI legislation are stalled as Congress taps out for election season.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters following the lunch that much of Congress' bipartisan work has been "rendered obsolete" because of how fast the technology moves.
- He added it's difficult to build consensus in industry and among lawmakers.
Yes, but: Legally mandated transparency measures can keep pace with AI development because they operate independently of technological advances, a benchmarking company representative who recently met with lawmakers said.
- Hawley's office sees liability for harm as simpler than trying to write a regulatory regime on technology that is always changing, said a source familiar with the legislation.
The bottom line: So long as Trump and his Hill allies take their cues from industry, its lack of consensus will inevitably spill into Congress.
