Ahead of Xi State Visit, Warren, Schumer, Kim, and Slotkin Call for AI Safety Regulations, Export Controls

Ahead of Xi State Visit, Warren, Schumer, Kim, and Slotkin Call for AI Safety Regulations, Export Controls

Today Senate Democrats urged GOP leadership to pass the bipartisan AI OVERWATCH Act, MATCH Act, and Chip Security Act.

"Instead of inviting big tech CEOs to dinner with President Xi, President Trump should support these bipartisan bills to prevent our chips from going to China."

Watch Remarks Here (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, joined Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senator Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance, and Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, for a press conference calling for commonsense AI safety regulations and export controls on advanced U.S. technology ahead of President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping's arrival in Washington, D.C. for an official state visit this afternoon.

Below are Ranking Member Warren's remarks as delivered:

Thank you, Leader Schumer, and thank you to my colleagues for being here and leading this fight with us.

Look, we're all getting the phone calls, the emails, the DMs because Americans across the country are worried about the impact of artificial intelligence on the economy and on their own personal safety and the safety of their families.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson proclaimed that Congress should not lead AI safety efforts and sent his members home - evidently not seeing a problem. Leader Thune said regulation should be "light touch."

That is the wrong approach.

First, the United States has to address the very real risks created by increasingly powerful AI systems. These decisions need to be made by the American people through their representatives in government, not by a handful of AI CEOs and giant companies. It is clear that now is the moment for action to put serious rules and serious constraints into place.

Second, we need to make sure China isn't getting access to our advanced technology to create evermore dangerous AI systems.

And we certainly should not be letting big tech billionaires like Nvidia's Jensen Huang negotiate away our export controls or decide our AI policy to benefit his own personal bottom line. Mr. Huang should be nowhere near the negotiating table during President Xi's visit.

Congress has been working on bipartisan proposals to prevent the most sensitive American technology from reaching China.

We have three pieces of legislation. The first one: don't send this technology to China - it's called the AI OVERWATCH.

The second one: don't send the equipment to make these chips to China - it's called the MATCH Act.

And the third: whenever chips leave the United States to go to some third country, make sure they have a tracker in them so you always know where they are and where they're being used. That's called the Chip Security Act.

These are bipartisan proposals. They have widespread support among both Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate. Congress could act on them right now if the Republican leadership would show any courage.

Leaders Thune and Johnson should put these bills on the floor. Instead of inviting big tech CEOs to dinner with President Xi, President Trump should support these bipartisan bills to prevent our chips from going to China. And Congress needs to step up and regulate AI. The time to act was yesterday. Thank you.

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