AI risk becomes a US election issue
AI risk becomes a US election issue
By autumn 2026 AI risk had moved from tech circles to national politics. Insider resignations made the news, bills to ban or switch off superintelligent AI were filed, and polls showed voters more worried than excited, all in the run-up to the November midterms.
Links
- Newsweek (9 Sep 2026): AI researcher's dire warning sparks calls for regulation ahead of midterms
- NBC News (14 Sep 2026): Dire warnings about AI shock Congress, but action is unlikely before the election
- The Daily Show (6 Oct 2026): Jon Stewart interviews Jacob Coxon
- Fox News live updates (21 Oct 2026): Trump issues AI, data center position; Anthropic CEO defends record on safety, sales to China
What happened
- The trigger. On 9 September Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic, saying the people building AI "earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade". Representative Greg Casar answered: "This is an emergency." Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R) called for a special session on AI.
- The bills (per NBC), none likely to pass before the election:
- a superintelligence ban (Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar): no developing or deploying superintelligent AI that humans can't control
- the AI Kill Switch Act (Ted Lieu, D, and Nathaniel Moran, R): developers must be able to "throttle, suspend or shut down" their most powerful systems
- the Frontier Act (Lori Trahan, D, and Jay Obernolte, R): safety and transparency rules for large AI companies
- The resistance. Speaker Mike Johnson said AI is "not one that we can rush into". Asked whether he had concerns about extinction risk, President Trump said: "No, I don't have any."
- Prime time. On 6 October Jon Stewart gave Coxon 26 minutes on The Daily Show. By 21 October it had 4.2M YouTube views.
- The labs respond. On 21 October, per Fox News, Dario Amodei posted a long defence of Anthropic's safety record and of its refusal to sell to Chinese state-controlled companies.
What voters say
| Poll finding | Share |
|---|---|
| More worried than excited about AI (NBC News, Aug–Sep, n=7,105) | 70% |
| Want more AI regulation (YouGov/Economist, Aug, n=1,592) | 59% |
| Say data centers are bad for the country (YouGov/Economist) | 51% |
| Trust neither party on AI (NBC News) | 44% |
| Want less AI regulation (YouGov/Economist) | 6% |
As reported by Newsweek, September 2026.
Money is following. AI-focused super PACs have put "tens of millions of dollars" into races, and a Democratic group, Tomorrow Together, plans to spend $10 million backing pro-regulation candidates.