Texas Republican Chip Roy said on CNBC's Squawk Box that while he opposes government regulation of AI as a free-market conservative, he believes Congress should hold hearings where AI company executives explain their safety practices. Roy, who is leaving the House after losing his bid for Texas attorney general, recently joined an unusual bipartisan coalition including Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon at a Future of Life Institute event focused on AI risks.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-18
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing California officials to convene experts who will deliver recommendations within two months on strengthening AI safety rules. The proposals under consideration include a verified 'kill switch' for frontier AI models, onsite independent audits, mandatory transparency reporting, and required disclosure of 'loss-of-control incidents.' The order also speeds up implementation of two laws Newsom already signed establishing AI safety verifiers and an auditor registry.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-18
Fund issuers are preparing exchange-traded funds tied to unconventional themes such as election outcomes and hockey statistics, expanding the range of speculative investment products available to retail investors. These offerings reflect the broader trend of ETF providers seeking niche angles to attract attention in an increasingly crowded market.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-18
NYC DSA's Tech Action Working Group posted an Instagram carousel arguing that AI doom warnings and AI hype serve the same purpose: distracting the public from present-day harms of the technology. The post, which gained over 25,000 likes, drew backlash from commenters and highlights a growing rift among leftists, some of whom—like Senator Bernie Sanders—have embraced warnings that AI could threaten humanity's survival.
wired.com
· 2026-09-18
American AI governance discussions focus largely on existential risks and protecting humanity from potential harms of advanced systems. Chinese authorities, by contrast, prioritize AI rules that shield the Communist Party's authority and political stability, reflecting fundamentally different visions of what 'safe' AI should look like.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-18
In a discussion on WIRED's Uncanny Valley podcast, hosts Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer, and Leah Feiger debated the growing focus on 'recursive self-improvement' (RSI), the idea of AI systems autonomously building successive, increasingly uncontrollable AI models. Schiffer argued that RSI appears to be replacing AGI as the industry's go-to buzzword once AGI began to seem less achievable, serving more as a marketing and geopolitical narrative than a rigorous technical concern.
wired.com
· 2026-09-17
The House of Representatives left Washington on Wednesday, effectively delaying any legislative response to mounting warnings about artificial intelligence risks until after the November midterms. Speaker Mike Johnson canceled planned Thursday work, telling reporters lawmakers needed to return home to campaign, and pointed to the Senate to take up any AI legislation instead. The move comes despite pleas from executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI for federal oversight after an Anthropic researcher's resignation warning about AI's existential dangers.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-17
Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CNBC that artificial intelligence needs enforceable guidelines and that companies should bear legal liability for harms caused by their AI systems. He went further, suggesting AI labs may need to be nationalized to shield clients from lawsuits tied to advanced AI's risks.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-17
Executives at Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and X are publicly floating the idea of pacing frontier AI development rather than racing ahead unchecked. This shift follows a summer marked by rogue AI agent incidents and researcher warnings about existential risks from advanced AI systems. Despite the rhetoric, no concrete commitments or regulatory actions have yet accompanied these statements.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-17
King Charles III addressed AI industry leaders, calling on them to ensure the technology remains under human control and does not develop harmful or uncontrollable capabilities. The remarks come amid mounting international anxiety over an AI race largely dominated by the United States and China.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-17
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, released a 37-page 'Humanist AI Code of Conduct' outlining Microsoft's principles for AI development, including its stance on issues like AI consciousness. In an interview and a companion essay, he criticized Anthropic's approach to 'model welfare,' arguing it dangerously misconstrues what AI systems actually are and complicates the broader safety debate.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-17
Senior Trump administration officials have been meeting nearly every day in recent months to discuss possible guardrails for artificial intelligence policy. The internal deliberations reflect competing views within the administration on how much federal oversight AI development should face.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-17
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