Congress Declines AI Safety Duty, Experts Should Police Their Own Apocalypse
KEY POINTS
- •House Speaker Mike Johnson said on September 13, 2026, that Congress won’t force AI regulation and urged companies to self-police.
- •Johnson rejected calls to cancel House recess despite members urging action after AI labs proposed slowing development for safety.
- •He proposed a meeting with former President Trump, Congress, and AI CEOs, emphasizing innovation without smothering American leadership.
On a sunny Sunday no one will soon forget, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Congress will heroically avoid babysitting AI safety despite multiple calls to cancel recess and legislate safeguards. Johnson insisted AI companies, those same folks who design things that might 'kill all humans,' can simply 'halt development at any time.' And no emergency moratorium, thanks; we cannot risk China 'overlapping' us in the AI arms race, because why cry about robot overlords when you can chase geopolitical panic instead? Johnson pitched a VIP powwow between ex-President Trump, Congress members, and AI CEOs—the folks who claim corporate responsibility but also want lawmakers to chill. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei published a 3,800-word essay begging to slow AI progress, but Johnson's take is that nobody, not even the tech titans updating their own Frankenstein’s recipe, agrees on safety. So stay calm America, Congress refuses to panic, prefers to balance innovation with non-smothering, and rests easy leaving the AI apocalypse to the discretion of companies known for pushing envelopes—and sometimes burning those letters unread.
Share the Story
(1 of 3)Congress wants AI companies to self-regulate their possible extinction devices because nothing says responsible like hoping corporate conscience kicks in before Skynet boots up.
House GOP passing the 'don’t touch the nuclear button' policy to AI labs as if giant robots are children who'll behave when watched.
AI companies told to pause their ‘about to kill everyone’ projects like a group project where everyone just politely ignores their responsibilities.
Source: Axios | Published: 9/13/2026 | Author: Donica Phifer
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