AI fears spook Washington as more Republicans call for greater regulation

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Welcome to White House Watch. Here’s what we’re looking at today:

• Washington rushes to address AI risk
• 10-year Treasury yield hits 5% for first time since 2023
• China’s spy agency warns of AI risk to national security

Washington rushes to address AI risk

10-year Treasury yield hits 5% for first time since 2023

China’s spy agency warns of AI risk to national security

Washington was supposed to be in clean-up mode this week. There are just a handful of days left in the Senate and House’s sessions before they adjourn ahead of the midterm elections, and a number of outstanding bills.

But stark warnings on the dangers of unfettered AI development from the bosses of Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI over the weekend — and their calls for a co-ordinated slowdown of model releases — have sent shockwaves through the political establishment and brought regulation of the technology to the fore.

Evidence of this will be on display today when, in a sign of how concerns over the technology are reshaping the US political landscape, veteran socialist US senator Bernie Sanders and rightwing activist Steve Bannon will join forces to call for greater guardrails on AI, alongside lawmakers from across the political divide.

The event comes as Bannon’s former boss, President Donald Trump, continues to defy many of his own Maga supporters by insisting that strict regulation of AI would stifle an industry that is the bedrock of US economic growth.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday. “There is a SICK conspiracy going on against Al and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China”.

Moments earlier, Trump’s vice-president JD Vance suggested to reporters that some additional AI regulation was necessary and that “the best way to do it would be a consensus between both Congress and the administration”.

A growing number of Republicans have come out in support of measures to curb the deployment of AI, including bans on data centre construction. There have also been bipartisan calls for greater oversight of new AI models.

Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, has called for a meeting with AI bosses at the White House and yesterday said tech chiefs could come to Washington in the coming days or early next week.

But time is running out before Congress goes to recess, and there is no consensus on specific regulation. It may take until January, when Democrats are likely to seize more control, for legislators to seriously tackle AI governance. Worryingly, some AI researchers think that might be too late.

The latest headlines

• The US Supreme Court has rejected Trump’s attempt to restrict mail-in ballots ahead of November’s midterm elections in a major blow to the president.
• A Russian businessman bankrolled the after-party to Donald Trump Jr’s wedding in the Bahamas, raising questions about the relationship between a figure with reported ties to Vladimir Putin and the US president’s eldest son.
• Trump said yesterday that Ukraine and Russia agreed to halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure, appearing to announce a deal that caught Ukrainian officials off guard.
• China’s spy agency has warned that AI could pose a risk to the country’s political and social security.
• Texas has put the brakes on its rush to build data centres as its Republican leaders respond to a growing public backlash over the state’s rapid AI build-out.
• In a surprise announcement at the end of his two-day trip to Ireland, Trump announced he was scrapping tariffs on Irish whiskey.

The US Supreme Court has rejected Trump’s attempt to restrict mail-in ballots ahead of November’s midterm elections in a major blow to the president.

A Russian businessman bankrolled the after-party to Donald Trump Jr’s wedding in the Bahamas, raising questions about the relationship between a figure with reported ties to Vladimir Putin and the US president’s eldest son.

Trump said yesterday that Ukraine and Russia agreed to halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure, appearing to announce a deal that caught Ukrainian officials off guard.

China’s spy agency has warned that AI could pose a risk to the country’s political and social security.

Texas has put the brakes on its rush to build data centres as its Republican leaders respond to a growing public backlash over the state’s rapid AI build-out.

In a surprise announcement at the end of his two-day trip to Ireland,
Trump announced he was scrapping tariffs on Irish whiskey.

What we’re hearing

In news not entirely unrelated to the AI scare, yields on 10-year US Treasuries hit 5 per cent on Monday for the first time since 2023.

The push into what is widely viewed by economists as a worrisome threshold came as surging oil prices, sparked by the Iran war shock, have battered government bonds across the globe.

It was also caused in part by mounting public debts and blockbuster debt issuance by tech companies financing the AI boom.

“The 10-year at these levels trips a signal somewhere,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment strategist at wealth management company Cresset. “This is a moment to pay attention to.” Ablin noted that the rise in yields would push up mortgage rates, which have jumped to almost 6.8 per cent in recent weeks, and make “capital more expensive” for businesses, putting pressure on corporate America.

Stock markets also fell after the biggest AI companies called for a slowdown in the development of the rapidly advancing technology.

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Viewpoints

• For reasons even his defenders find hard to explain, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has been on a credibility spending spree, writes Edward Luce.
• With the Houthis on the Red Sea coast and Saudi pipelines under drone attack, a spreading Gulf war now threatens both Trump’s midterms and MBS’s development plans, writes Gideon Rachman.
• Self-driving cars are already safer than human drivers, but fragile public trust means the robotaxi revolution will need careful handling by regulators and operators, argues the FT’s editorial board.
• Having belatedly warned about AI’s dangers, the founders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok and DeepMind must now relinquish some of their power and submit to oversight on a human scale, writes Misha Glenny.
• Slowing the race to frontier models would not just help stave off the AI apocalypse but could end up sparing investors nearly $100bn a year in deferred spending, reckons Lex’s John Foley.

For reasons even his defenders find hard to explain, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has been on a credibility spending spree, writes Edward Luce.

With the Houthis on the Red Sea coast and Saudi pipelines under drone attack, a spreading Gulf war now threatens both Trump’s midterms and MBS’s development plans, writes Gideon Rachman.

Self-driving cars are already safer than human drivers, but fragile public trust means the robotaxi revolution will need careful handling by regulators and operators, argues the FT’s editorial board.

Having belatedly warned about AI’s dangers, the founders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Grok and DeepMind must now relinquish some of their power and submit to oversight on a human scale, writes Misha Glenny.

Slowing the race to frontier models would not just help stave off the AI apocalypse but could end up sparing investors nearly $100bn a year in deferred spending, reckons Lex’s John Foley.

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