Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony on Capitol Hill on Sept. 18, 2024. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
House Speaker Mike Johnson wants Congress to stay out of the way when it comes to AI, he told Axios on Thursday in an interview in the Capitol.
Why it matters: Johnson is keeping expectations low on any sort of major AI legislative effort passing in the lame duck.
The big picture: Johnson says he is very wary of any "red tape" that would stifle AI development.
- Such an approach has been informed by talking to people like venture capitalist Marc Andreesen, who Johnson interviewed last month and has been a vocal supporter of former President Trump.
Driving the news: After more than a dozen meetings and briefings, the House Bipartisan AI Taskforce has a deadline of November to chart a pathway forward for regulating AI, Johnson said.
- The report will outline an approach where Congress doesn't create "some massive regulatory scheme," Johnson said.
- He cited conversations with Silicon Valley AI players who are "genuinely concerned that there'll be an overreach by the federal government that would stifle innovation and that could be dangerous to us."
- The report is not likely to include recommendations for specific pieces of legislation, Johnson said, but rather "an overarching set of principles that we would want to follow if legislation comes from that."
Friction point: Johnson emphasized how AI is a nonpartisan issue. But shying away from any bills at all at this point is a departure from the original intent of the working group.
- Republican co-chair Jay Obernolte told Axios back in February that the group would "create legislation, we will introduce it and then it'll go through the normal legislative process."
The House's annual defense policy bill includes some AI provisions that Johnson acknowledged don't go as far as the Senate's proposal. During NDAA negotiations with the Senate, Johnson said House Republicans are likely to resist going too far and over-regulating.
- "We don't want government to usurp the role of researchers, but we want to spur on the private sector, and to the extent there are grants that can assist with that, maybe that is appropriate," he said.
- "But I don't think we need to be throwing billions of dollars into this."
What we're watching: Some lawmakers have floated export controls as a way to compete with China on AI.
- "When Donald Trump is reelected, and I believe he will be, he is going to immediately emphasize an aggressive stance towards China. He's talking about tariffs and all sorts of other things," Johnson said.
- "So we have to make appropriate adjustments. Outbound investments and other things are big issues that we're discussing right now."
- "We got to build consensus on what the right approach is, but I think you'll see a lot of emphasis on that in the first quarter of next year."
The interview with Johnson was on the sidelines of a congressional Hackathon event he hosted with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to brainstorm new ideas on how technology can improve the legislative branch.
- Johnson said his biggest takeaway from the event is that Congress should mimic how the private sector is leveraging technology to improve the lives of constituents.
Johnson said he's paying attention to deepfakes and how they might play out during the election cycle.
- "We're watching very closely to see how the private sector adapts to that and how the states regulate or control that."
- "Congress doesn't need to jump out ahead of that and take unnecessary steps, but we'll see how all these ideas percolate," he said.
Johnson still teaches a course on constitutional law at Liberty University and says he's grappling with his students using AI for their papers. He's also using AI himself as a detection tool for plagiarism.
- "That's the most direct interaction that I've had with [AI], potentially, you know, being misused."
- "But it's new and people are stumbling through it so, you know, I try to give a lot of mercy."
