Ted Cruz: Congress 'doesn't know what the hell it's doing' with AI regulation

Congress “doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing” when it comes to regulating artificial intelligence, Sen. Ted Cruz said on Thursday.

When asked about AI regulation in an interview with POLITICO Editor-in-Chief Matt Kaminski during POLITICO’s Global Tech Day, Cruz said lawmakers should proceed cautiously and listen to experts — since most lawmakers don’t understand the technology.

“To be honest, Congress doesn't know what the hell it's doing in this area,” said Cruz (R-Texas), a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation committee. “This is an institution [where] I think the median age in the Senate is about 142. This is not a tech savvy group.”

The debate over how or whether to regulate artificial intelligence technology, like ChatGPT, has taken Washington by storm as of late with its potential to lead to dramatic innovations in research but also eventually replace workers.

However, lawmakers are struggling to balance between setting rules for the road for the nascent tech while also ensuring they don't over-regulate it and stifle U.S. leadership and innovation in the space.

Hesitation on such regulation has served Washington well in the past, Cruz added, crediting the United States’ prosperity with technological innovation to lawmakers’ diligence with setting up guardrails. Only when Congress understands “what we’re dealing with” should they proceed with regulation, he said.

Across the ocean, there hasn’t been the same caution, Cruz said.

"I think Europe historically has been far less concerned with creating an environment where innovation can flourish,” he said.

At the same time, the Texas Republican emphasized that Washington can’t allow itself to fall behind adversaries, particularly China, when it comes to implementing artificial intelligence in the military.

"I believe that we need a comprehensive strategy for dealing with China, much like we had under Ronald Reagan for dealing with the Soviet Union and for ultimately winning the Cold War," he said.

If Beijing succeeds in its goal to lead the world on AI, “that would be profoundly dangerous to the United States from a national defense perspective, but also certainly from an economic perspective,” Cruz said.

Back in April, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued principles for regulating AI and called for lawmakers to write legislation setting guardrails around ethical use and transparency with the tech. Ever since, there's been a flurry of Senate hearings — including one with OpenAI's CEO, who has called for regulation. There's also been a slew of bipartisan briefings for lawmakers to get them up to speed on the technology.

Meanwhile, the EU has sped ahead. The European Parliament passed the Artificial Intelligence Act, which would ban facial recognition technology in public venues, on Wednesday.