House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday rejected calls for an emergency moratorium on artificial intelligence development, asserting that such a pause would allow China to surpass the United States in the rapidly advancing field. Instead, Johnson proposed bringing together AI platform leaders and policymakers to establish appropriate safety measures.
"We have to resist Congress jumping in and imposing some sort of emergency moratorium," Johnson stated on CNN's "State of the Union." "Here's what I'm proposing: I think the leaders and providers of these platforms need to come together with us and figure out what the right balance is. We cannot put a moratorium on this because China will overlap us."
His comments come as tech executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have advocated for slowing the pace of AI model development due to concerns about increasingly powerful capabilities. Amodei specifically called for time to "make wise use of the time we gain."
However, former President Donald Trump also voiced opposition to a broad slowdown, framing AI development as a critical aspect of U.S. competition with China. "We're leading China on AI. We're the most sophisticated country in the world and, frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI wins," Trump said.
Amy Kremer, chairwoman of Humans First and a Republican National Committee member, echoed the sentiment that American innovation should lead, but with necessary safeguards. "We need guardrails that protect Americans while allowing American innovation to lead the world," Kremer said. "That means protecting children, workers and our national security, while making sure China doesn't win the AI race."
Humans First, a conservative grassroots movement, is also advocating for preserving state and local authority over the infrastructure required to power AI, such as data centers. The group opposes blanket data-center moratoriums while calling for local control and rejecting eminent domain for such projects.
"When it comes to the massive data centers being built to power AI, Washington should not strip states and local communities of their authority," Kremer stated. "The people who live with these projects should have a voice in whether and where they're built."
Public concern regarding AI infrastructure, particularly data centers, has been noted. A July Fox News poll indicated that 70% of registered voters opposed the construction of AI data centers in their areas.
Johnson suggested that high-level discussions to address national security and safety concerns related to AI should take place, potentially hosted at the White House. "We've got to summon everybody together," he said. "They probably should be summoned together at the White House. And I think we need to go in a big room, close the door and sort this out. And I'll be the one pushing for it."