Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Brian Schatz introduced broad legislation to regulate the artificial intelligence industry amid safety concerns.
The 35-page bill, called the Artificial Intelligence Risk Management and Security Act, follows multiple hacks and warnings about the latest AI models. Over the past few months, major AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have disclosed hacks, and concerns over AI's potential threat to humanity have escalated.
On the Senate floor on Thursday, Sen. Warner said that "a lot of good will come out of artificial intelligence," but said AI companies may not be able to control their models.
"This is going to be the biggest transformation of our lifetimes, and we don't have even de minimis safety protocols," Warner said. "We are completely relying on the goodwill of these large AI frontier tech companies to kind of do the right thing."
The bill would create an Artificial Intelligence Safety Board that would be within the Commerce Department, and companies that develop AI models would be required to give that board access to their models at least 45 days before it is publicly released, the senators said. The new board would also be tasked with creating "enforceable standards" and if those are not followed, firms could face a penalty of up to $250,000 a day.
Safety checks are vital, Warner said.
"We wouldn't climb on an airplane. You wouldn't get in the car. You wouldn't get a new financial product without some regulatory oversight," he said on Thursday. "Something that is as big as this, we should not miss the moment."