Artificial Intelligence
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing faster than our laws and safeguards can keep up with. It is a powerful tool with the potential to drive meaningful progress, but it also poses serious risks to workers, consumers, privacy, civil rights, national security, and the environment. While the path forward is unclear, we cannot allow a handful of powerful technology companies to write their own rules and police themselves. Congress has a duty to act: by creating clear safety standards, by holding companies accountable when their AI systems cause harm or “go rogue,” by ensuring communities have a real voice in how and where these technologies are deployed, and so much more. We must meet the moment, slow down development, and recognize that these growing risks and dangers demand urgent, bipartisan collaboration and international coordination. This concerted effort is essential to ensure that this technology develops in a way that’s safe, secure, and benefits everyone. I strongly support an independent federal review and testing process for the most powerful AI models before they are released, along with enforceable safety standards, incident-reporting requirements, regular audits, and strong protections for employees who report dangers or violations. We also need vigorous enforcement of our antitrust and consumer-protection laws, so the development of AI does not further concentrate economic power among a few dominant companies. Federal action should establish a strong floor for AI safety without preventing states and local communities from adopting additional protections. That is especially important as energy- and water-intensive data centers are being proposed across Maine and throughout the country. I share the alarm of many Mainers about the community and environmental impacts of data centers including emissions, water usage, air pollution, noise pollution, and PFAS and other contaminants and worry about their long-term health effects on nearby residents. Communities deserve a meaningful voice in these decisions, and families should not be forced to pay higher utility bills or bear the environmental and public health costs of unchecked development. We need transparency from developers about the harms these data centers are causing and strong protections in place to minimize those impacts, protect our land and water resources, and incentivize clean energy production to keep up with increasing energy demands. AI’s most serious risks do not stop at national borders. The United States must work with allies, competitors, and adversaries to establish shared safety standards, prevent dangerous uses, and slow the international race to deploy increasingly powerful systems without adequate safeguards. Innovation must benefit everyone—not just a handful of tech billionaires. While we work to address the risks of the most advanced models, we must not lose sight of the downstream ramifications. AI is already and will continue to disrupt our work, social life, and economy in ways we can and cannot anticipate. Since these technologies were created using our collective labor, knowledge, and creativity, technology companies will have to pay up for the economic and social disruption they inflict. I will work with my colleagues to craft and implement an AI policy agenda that establishes clear safeguards wherever AI is developed or deployed, centers workers and families, and first and foremost upholds our shared humanity. This Congress, I have:
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