Top Republican pushes party to shun $300mn AI lobby

{"text":[[{"start":7.75,"text":"A top Republican has urged his party to refuse money from pro-AI groups touting a $300mn war chest, while warning of a “political cost” if Congress fails to rein in Big Tech."}],[{"start":20.5,"text":"In an interview with the FT, Missouri senator Josh Hawley called on “fellow Republicans” and other lawmakers to eschew backing from political action committees funded by founders of OpenAI and Palantir and companies such as Meta, as some progressive Democrats have done."}],[{"start":37.4,"text":"“These people want something in exchange for [their financial support], and it’s not just access,” Hawley warned. “They want you to toe the line on their agenda. They want to spin to get influence. And I think that we need to be in the business, we Republicans . . . of putting people first.”"}],[{"start":54.45,"text":"Several Super Pacs, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money, have been formed in the past year to fund candidates who favour light-touch regulation of the AI industry."}],[{"start":64.9,"text":"The largest of them, Leading the Future, has received $50mn from venture capital group Andreessen Horowitz and a further $25mn from OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife. It claims to have secured a total of $140mn."}],[{"start":81.15,"text":"The size of the war chests has already had a chilling effect on some Democrats. The FT reported last week that top party consultants had been advising candidates across the US not to antagonise the pro-AI lobby ahead of November’s midterm elections."}],[{"start":96.9,"text":"Responding to the FT’s report, progressive senator Bernie Sanders called the silencing of Democrats “unacceptable”. "}],[{"start":103.80000000000001,"text":"“Democrats must get Super Pacs out of their primaries,” Sanders wrote on X. “We must have the courage to take on the AI oligarchs.”"}],[{"start":112.80000000000001,"text":"Other progressive Democrats, such as New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have called on candidates to shun all AI cash. "}],[{"start":121.50000000000001,"text":"Hawley, a staunch Republican and supporter of President Donald Trump, echoed those calls. He said failing to push for the regulation of AI would come at the “cost of children who are introduced to self-harm” as well as economic pressures caused by rising electricity costs."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":137.3,"text":"“When there’s a human cost, there will be a political cost,” Hawley said."}],[{"start":142.20000000000002,"text":"One of the loudest critics of Big Tech in Washington, Hawley last year broke with the Trump administration to oppose a proposed ban on state-level regulation of AI — a move that industry groups, and the president’s AI adviser David Sacks, had lobbied heavily for."}],[{"start":157.55,"text":"Hawley has also proposed several federal bills, often with support from Democratic colleagues, to regulate the nascent technology, which he last year warned “threatens the common man’s liberty”. "}],[{"start":168.9,"text":"In October, following incidents in which children had self-harmed or died by suicide after sustained engagement with AI chatbots, Hawley introduced a bill that seeks to prohibit companies from offering chatbots to minors."}],[{"start":182.05,"text":"Amid a fierce backlash against the technology from within the Maga coalition, the White House in March urged Congress to pass some basic child-safety and content laws."}],[{"start":194.05,"text":"But it has also leaned on Republican lawmakers, in Utah and Hawley’s home state of Missouri, to drop state-level bills designed to regulate the technology — even threatening to withhold federal funding for those who disobey."}],[{"start":206.8,"text":"A White House official said the administration was eager to work with partners to implement its AI framework, but added that “the most restrictive states should not dictate national AI policy at the expense of America’s domination of this new frontier”."}],[{"start":223.15,"text":"“This is something I’ve talked to the president about directly on more than one occasion,” Hawley said of state-led efforts. “It is vital that we allow that important work to go forward.” "}],[{"start":233.45000000000002,"text":"“To say that . . . we’re not going to do anything federally, but we want to stop the states from doing anything at all . . . is a mistake, and I’ve consistently opposed that.”"}],[{"start":243.50000000000003,"text":"Hawley said the tech lobby, which is “tremendously influential on both sides of the aisle”, was part of the reason Congress has failed to pass meaningful AI regulation."}],[{"start":253.60000000000002,"text":"“I’m worried that the Senate’s behaving more like there’s a sign on the door that says ‘Property of Big Tech’ . . . it is time to change that.”"}],[{"start":259.85,"text":"If lawmakers in Washington failed to rein in AI companies, “I don’t have any confidence that this technology will just magically evolve in a way that is pro-worker and pro-family,” Hawley said."}],[{"start":271.5,"text":"“I think it will evolve in a way that benefits the billionaires who control it, and will be severely detrimental potentially to just about everybody else.”"}],[{"start":288.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1776924871_5303.mp3"}