By Mary Helen Smith
In recent days, headlines have been flooded with employees and leaders of artificial intelligence (AI) companies warning the public about the technology’s rapidly increasing dangers.[1] Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon resigned from the company and publicly stated his superiors were consistently using urgent language like “crunchtime” and “endgame” to progress the development of these models, and that safety compromises were inevitable when U.S. tech companies are competing against one another and against Chinese counterparts.[2]
Simultaneously, several tech CEOs have publicly called for government regulation of the AI industry, noting this pressure to continue innovating to stay ahead of domestic competitors.[3] The Trump administration, however, has been reluctant to pursue any form of slowdown for fear of U.S. tech innovation falling behind its international competitors, namely China.[4] Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk have all called for a slowdown on the matter, but members of Congress are split on whether this should be a priority, especially compared to other issues they are facing.[5] President Trump is primarily concerned with the United States’ global position, stating “whoever wins AI, wins.”[6]
Chief Global Affairs Officer of OpenAI, Chris Lehane, published an article on the OpenAI website entitled The AI Policy Window is Open. We Need to Act., detailing the multiple areas that greater society would benefit from shared standards regarding AI development.[7] In this statement, Lehane suggests a strong national framework that targets safety concerns but can also adapt as the technology continues to progress.[8]
Congress has, for several years, been faced with difficulty in passing substantial legislation, due to the tight numbers game of obtaining a simple majority in an extremely party-centric system.[9] Because of this Congressional gridlock, passing anything urgently will prove difficult, and this issue is exacerbated by controversial legislation.[10] Support for AI regulation is far from widely popular, and because the President’s stance is so firm on the matter, many Republican members of Congress are not likely to offer support very quickly.[11] The numbers are growing, however, for industry leaders and employees who are expressing concern and calling for national standards, and this public push could motivate the people to push Congress toward action.[12]
Mary Helen Smith is a 2L at Vanderbilt Law School. She plans on focusing on Tax after law school, with a broader interest in regulatory advice and counsel across industries such as Banking and Healthcare.
[1] Amrith Ramkumar, Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears, Wall St. J. (Sept. 9, 2026), https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-researcher-quits-over-out-of-control-ai-fears-707b7628.
[2] Id.
[3] Alexa LoMonaco, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Joins Growing Chorus of Tech Leaders Warning About AI Risks, CNBC (Sept. 15, 2026), https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/15/salesforce-marc-benioff-ai-risks.html.
[4] Darlene Superville & Didi Tang, Trump Downplays the Need to Check AI Development and Says He Doesn’t Want to Cede Edge to China, PBS News (Sept. 13, 2026), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-downplays-the-need-to-check-ai-development-and-says-he-doesnt-want-to-cede-edge-to-china.
[5] Brandon Drenon & Kali Hays, AI Regulation Faces Political Deadlock as Calls Grow for Congress to Act, BBC (Sept. 14, 2026), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck20989806e9o.
[6] Robert Boothe & Julia Kollewe, OpenAI Boss and Elon Musk Back Calls to Put Brakes on ‘Reckless’ AI Development, The Guardian (Sept. 13, 2026), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/13/openai-sam-altman-elon-musk-back-anthropic-calls-brakes-ai-development.
[7] Chris Lehane, The AI Policy Window is Open. We Need to Act., OpenAI (Sept. 9, 2026), https://openai.com/index/ai-policy-window/.
[8] Id.
[9] Robert Cropf, How Congress Lost Its Capacity to Act and How to Get It Back, Fulcrum (Jan. 14, 2026), https://thefulcrum.us/governance-legislation/legislative-gridlock-in-congress.
[10] Id.
[11] See Boothe & Kollewe, supra note 6.
[12] See Ramkumar, supra note 1.