--- title: "Aging Congress Is Completely Ill-Equipped to Regulate AI, or Seemingly Even Understand It" description: "Congress is in total disarray over how to regulate AI, with some lawmakers complaining that their colleagues don't understand the technology." date: "2026-09-12" modified: "2026-09-12" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/aging-congress-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" --- # Aging Congress Is Completely Ill-Equipped to Regulate AI, or Seemingly Even Understand It ![Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, seated, talks with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., before the Senate Judiciary Committee markup.]() *Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images* Surely our creaking gerontocracy is well-equipped to respond to a technology as novel, disruptive, and rapidly evolving as AI, right? Well, we hate to burst anyone's bubble, but a [new piece]() from *Politico* makes it sure sound like that Congress is completely stumped by how to tackle AI, with over a dozen lawmakers and congressional aides venting to the newspaper about the lack of urgency on the Hill over regulating the tech. Many questioned whether elected representatives fully grasp, or are even capable of grasping, the technology they're dealing with. "There is a percentage of my colleagues who are still trying to spell AI," representative Sam Liccardo (D-CA) told *Politico*. "We need to dramatically increase the base knowledge of Congress if we're going to legislate meaningfully," he added. "And I know that is not going to happen overnight." Liccardo likely isn't exaggerating. Last year, a minor brouhaha [erupted]() over Trump's secretary of education Linda McMahon repeatedly pronouncing AI as "A1" — yes, like the steak sauce — while bloviating about how important chatbots were in the classroom. There seems to be a growing consensus on the Hill that there needs to be more substantive AI regulation. These concerns were catalyzed this week after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit his job at the company, and in a [post]() that went mega viral, [warned that AI companies were]() "gambling with our lives" by building powerful AI models that they knew could destroy humanity. But no one, it seems, can agree on what that regulation should look like, while many are content to pass the buck on the issue. *Politico* points out how senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who serves as senate commerce chair, endorsed passing legislation to prevent "catastrophic risk" after the Anthropic researcher's warnings, and pointed to a bipartisan AI bill touted by senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) and senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MI) that's supposed to lay out more concrete regulations. But neither senator has said when they plan to actually introduce the bill, and requests for comments to their offices have gone unanswered or were met with a vague statement. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and other progressives, meanwhile, are advocating for a ban on developing an AI superintelligence — a technology that, while posing clear existential risks, we don't know is even possible to build yet. So is someone in power going to actually do *something* about regulating AI? It's probably not a good sign when the actual lawmakers running this country are asking themselves the same question, too. "You cannot just put your head in the sand on AI and say, 'I hope it works out.' You can't just go in and say, 'Government's got the solution — they're just going to ban it all.' That's just not going to work,'" representative Chip Roy (R-TX), a conservative who's on his way out of office, told *Politico*. "We're going to have to be thoughtful as leaders and actually have some friggin' leadership." **More on AI:** [*OpenAI’s Supposed Mathematical Breakthrough Devolves Into Explosive Drama as Mathematician Accuses It of Stealing His Work*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()