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By Ali Bianco |
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With help from Eli Okun and Irie Sentner Good Sunday afternoon. This is Ali Bianco, coming to you still gobsmacked by yesterday’s AI slow down announcements. Let’s dive in — and get in touch. DECODE IT ALL: POLITICO is convening the first-ever DECODED SUMMIT on Wednesday at the InterContinental DC The Wharf, bringing together top leaders in Washington and the tech industry to confront this momentous crossroads in AI policy. We’ll be interviewing influential tech leaders, including Trump adviser David Sacks, Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, top Anthropic executive Sarah Heck and RAISE US CEO Gina Raimondo.Register here to attend
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DRIVING THE DAY |
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The calls from the CEOs of three industry giants for an artificial intelligence slowdown capped a week dominated by doomsday declarations about an impending AI apocalypse. And it’s thrusting the issue of regulation back into the forefront of the political conversation. Over to you, Washington: The renewed focus on AI regulation will supercharge debates that were already being held from the halls of Capitol to the West Wing to the campaign trail, where the sense of urgency is higher than ever with lawmakers due back in town this week. “If a resignation or fresh cyber attack and three CEOs sounding the alarm don’t move Congress, my fear is really that the next signal won't be a warning — it could be a disaster,” Rep. Lori Trahan, the Massachusetts Democrat looking to lead her party on AI regulation, told Playbook this morning. Lawmakers will now confront whether they’re sleepwalking into what could be a generational technological crisis, or if the alarms sounding from within the industry are enough to jolt them awake and foster unity on a path forward. From a Tuesday vote on legislation that would curb the taxpayer cost of data centers to the possibility of a reinvigorated push to regulate AI in both chambers, the House and Senate’s final weeks in session before the midterms will be inseparable from the outcry from lawmakers over the prospect of AI models continuing to grow without federal checks. “I take these CEOs at their word, and honestly, I give them credit,” Trahan told Playbook. But the problem, she said, is that much of their internal reforms would be voluntary, and could be reversed down the line. “I don't think we can run the most powerful technology in human history on the honor system.” Enter what Trahan hopes will be an aggressive week of trying to meet the moment. She’s been fielding phone calls from her concerned colleagues since Jacob Coxon’s viral resignation. Trahan also spoke with her bipartisan partner on the issue Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) after Coxon’s resignation, as they continue pushing leadership to get behind their sweeping regulatory FRONTIER Act that would create independent reviews, preempt some state AI laws and create a possible emergency brake on out-of-control AI models. “If we need to make some tweaks to make sure it can pass both chambers and signed into law, let's have that conversation,” she said.
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There’s at least two obstacles to any renewed push for action as Congress comes back. One is the calendar: House GOP leadership scrapped the last two session weeks of September, which really only leaves this week to produce meaningful work. There’s already been calls and letters demanding leadership keep lawmakers in town until they clear an AI regulation bill. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week” this morning that action on AI will be a “high priority” at Tuesday’s Dem caucus meeting. But Speaker Mike Johnson is unlikely to change his mind, given the intensifying battle for control of the House. He dodged questions on whether he’d cancel recess on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” saying the House can’t “rush” legislation and risk giving China a competitive edge. He suggested the first move is talks with all the major tech heads, possibly at the White House, adding he’s talked to President Donald Trump and others about the “need to do it quickly.” But Johnson told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the onus for safety primarily falls to the tech companies themselves. While some members like Trahan have been pushing for more session time, she’s also prepared to make do with however many days they do have to act before the midterms. “I mean, our window was tight before,” she told Playbook. “But tight isn't closed.” As for Johnson’s proposed meeting, Trahan said there’s “a lot of voices that are deserving of a seat at that table.” Which leads to the bigger obstacle: a lack of unanimity about what to do. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pushing a bipartisan bill on AI safety that could hold companies legally liable, but the chamber is scheduled to be in session for just three more weeks. While he could carve out time, negotiations are moving slowly and it's not clear if or when he and his Democratic co-sponsor, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), will strike a deal, POLITICO’s Congress policy editor Emma Dumain told Playbook. And there could also be pressure to work on AI safety legislation through the Senate Commerce Committee, where Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has signaled he wants to lead on this issue. The most extreme proposal by progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) to pause development and ban “artificial superintelligence” hasn’t been widely embraced — for now. But Sanders is hosting a private AI briefing for senators on Wednesday, and it’ll be worth watching if any more senators are swayed. Former President Barack Obama is also urging Democrats — including 2028 presidential candidates and congressional leaders — to more aggressively focus on a comprehensive AI agenda, warning in a closed-door fundraiser that the technology is at an inflection point, Playbook’s Adam Wren reports. He said AI development would be “one of my central agendas” if he were running for president, a nudge that could influence the 2028 field.
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A message from Anthropic:  
As case loads grow at Arkana Labs, they use Claude to help process paperwork with 97-98% accuracy. Learn more. |
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Within the industry, the quick endorsements from xAI’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman of Anthropic’s Dario Amodei’s lengthy essay warning were stunning, especially given the history of bad blood among their three companies, POLITICO deputy managing editor Bob King told Playbook. Altman also dropped the bomb that his company’s potentially trillion-dollar initial stock offering will not happen this year, saying that “now would be an ill-advised moment.” But there’s an outlier likely to spur questions this week across Washington. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has had Trump’s ear on AI policy in the past, wrote in his own essay last month that “any policy that slows American model releases — even by a month — could add significant risk to American leadership while letting foreign models race ahead.” One more caveat: Some in the industry fear the technology is already too advanced to slow down, Bob tells us. Any new safeguards will run up against Trump’s overarching goal since the outset of his second term to stay ahead of China in the global AI arms race, an ambition that will remain top of mind as he prepares for his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of this month, POLITICO White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett told Playbook. Trump earlier today didn’t sound too convinced by the AI leaders’ calls for slowing development. “We’re leading China in AI, we’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly I want to keep it that way,” he told reporters in Dublin, per WaPo. “Whoever wins AI wins.” Trahan is already preempting the naysayers, arguing they risk bolstering China and pointing to the U.S. setting norms on nuclear weapons and aviation safety as an example. “I don't think we can expect to win a negotiation with China, or anyone else for that matter, by showing up empty-handed,” she said. “Congress has a window to create strong, durable guardrails,” Trahan added. “The next incident could be the one that causes real damage if we fail.”
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A message from Anthropic:  
How SoFlo Solar runs their business with help from Claude |
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REACTION ROUNDUP … — Jacob Coxon, the Anthropic whistleblower, on Amodei’s plan to pace development, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “It seems like a great plan for addressing domestic slowdowns, so for the frontier laboratories in the West to slow down. But, well, part of my worry was that I feel we need international coordination, or else we risk running the same race with China, which could be equally dangerous.” On what he’d like to see Congress do: “My personal opinion would be to insist and allow that the current labs regulate themselves. I do think that the people running the labs, especially their recent communications, are completely genuine. They would like to slow themselves down. And I think the advantage of that is you can move very quickly, rather than taking a long time.” — National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Amodei’s plan, on “Fox News Sunday”: “It really presents a roadmap for the private sector to get ahead of the curve on this. And while he's saying that we need to slow things down, he's also calling for sort of independent observers to come into the AI companies and to make sure that they're making sure that they are safe. … I think that getting AI to be safe is a solvable problem, and I think Amodei’s letter is a guide to how to do that.” — Pete Buttigieg on the threat of AI and how Congress should react to Amodei’s plan, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “There need to be safeguards. There need to be rules. There need to be limits. There needs to be a kill switch on rogue AI. You can set up frameworks that can be adjusted and changed every 30 days. … But the idea that you're just going to sit around and repeatedly say, ‘no rush.’ What have they been doing this entire time?”
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POLITICO's Decoded Summit The future of AI policy is being defined in power centers from coast to coast. Join POLITICO's Decoded Summit – Washington, D.C. on Sept. 16 for conversations on AI regulation, global competition, enterprise adoption, and more.
Register for the livestream. |
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7 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. O CANADA: As Canada and the U.S. remained locked in a testy trade war, Europe’s top leaders have been taking calls from Canadian PM Mark Carney, who’s looking to take their transatlantic relationship to the next level. WSJ’s Drew Hinshaw and colleagues reveal that Canada has talked with almost every major European leader in an effort to reorient the country more deeply towards the EU, with a new Canadian special envoy exploring the possibilities short of full membership in the EU or its market. It could even take on an “associate member” status, which EU officials are reportedly open to. It all comes as Trump says a deal with Canada to resolve the trade dispute could come “fairly soon,” per Bloomberg. 2. BIG WEEK FOR WARSH: Get ready for a massive week, Kevin Warsh. The Federal Reserve chair is facing more pressure than ever for a possible rate hike at this week’s meeting of central bank policymakers. The hotter-than-expected inflation data from Friday has now created a major test for Warsh and his philosophy to avoid quick moves based solely on the latest economic data, CNBC’s Matt Peterson writes. But if he doesn’t act, he could risk raising questions about how in control he is of the bank he leads. 3. IN THE TAR HEEL STATE: “Republicans fear they have a North Carolina problem,” by POLITICO’s Erin Doherty: “For months, they had argued that a post-Labor Day infusion of cash could jolt new energy into the largely stagnant but critical Senate race. But as Republican nominee Michael Whatley struggles to meaningfully close the gap against Democrat Roy Cooper in the polls, some in the party fear they’re running out of time. Republicans’ concerns were apparent in side conversations, closed-door meetings and even on-stage speeches at their splashy midterm convention in Dallas.”
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A message from Anthropic: How a small lab is giving more patients next-day answers
A kidney disease diagnosis is hard enough without a long wait for answers. As case loads grow at Arkana Labs, they’re using Claude to help process referral paperwork with 97–98% accuracy, so patients still get results the day after a biopsy. Learn more. |
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4. IMMIGRATION FILES: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has been full steam ahead on a messaging blitz that he’s hoping can salvage his relationship with immigration hardliners, who’ve come down on him for being too soft on deportations. It’s not working so far, POLITICO’s Myah Ward and colleagues write. “Mullin is very concerned about the criticism, so the effort to hammer stats and ‘tough talk’ is intentional,” one admin official told our colleagues. Official DHS and White House accounts have been pushing ICE and deportations more frequently this summer, and describing their policies in more aggressive terms, to shore up the base. 5. LIFE IS A HIGHWAY: For POLITICO Magazine, Memphis Barker traversed the Donald J. Trump Highway in the western Sahara in a look at how the road is playing an unusual role in the president’s Middle East plans. “In his letter to Trump confirming the motorway’s new name, [King Mohammed VI] expressed the utmost gratitude. The president’s decision in 2020 to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara would be ‘forever etched in the memory of Moroccans,’ he wrote. In exchange, the King had normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords … Yet the gamble has since paid off many times over.” 6. MEDIAWATCH: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials at the Pentagon pushed for the two crew members on the downed fighter jet in the Iran war, who have not been publicly identified yet, to participate in tonight’s “60 Minutes” special, CNN’s Zachary Cohen and Brian Stelter report. While the airmen were initially apprehensive, political appointees in the department kept pushing and it was Hegseth who met privately with them and talked through their participation. The Pentagon refuted the story in a statement. 7. TRUMP IN EUROPE: Trump said yesterday that unification of the two Irish territories would be “fantastic,” in a break from decades of U.S. neutrality on the division between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, per POLITICO’s Shawn Pogatchnik. That would require Northern Ireland breaking away from the U.K. “I’d love to see it unified … It’s going to happen eventually,” Trump said in Dublin.
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Spencer Cox on America’s political divide In the latest episode of On the Road, Jonathan Martin sits down with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to discuss his new book, Off Ramp, the future of the Republican Party, immigration reform and what he says it will take to rebuild trust and community in American life.
Watch now. |
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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SPORTS BLINK — “The billionaire Trump ally blowing up college football,” by WaPo’s Timothy Bella: “At a time when college sports are unrecognizable, billionaires are calling the plays. And no one is rewriting the playbook more than [Cody Campbell], 44, one of the most influential megadonors and most prominent disrupters in the industry. … Now, after leveraging his political connections in Washington, including his relationship with [Trump], Campbell is also a key player in the effort to push Congress to reshape college sports.” SCARY STUFF — A trespasser was stopped at Kamala Harris’ Malibu property on Friday, while Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff were not home at the time, POLITICO’s Melanie Mason reports. A spokesperson for Harris said the former VP and second gentlemen “are grateful to the security and law enforcement personnel who responded swiftly.” YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN — A Tudor-style home in Jamaica Estates, Queens — which was Donald Trump’s home until he was 4 — underwent a full renovation and sold for $1.93 million this past week. The buyer has not been publicly disclosed, per NYT. HEADLINE DU JOUR — “Would Jesus like Waymo? Baptists have thoughts,” by WaPo’s Liam Scott: “Would Jesus like Waymo? The Rev. A. Michael Charles Durant doesn’t think so. ‘Jesus either walked or rode a beast,’ Durant said in an interview at the Tenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, where he serves as pastor. … [At] his church, where Durant hosted an association of local Baptist ministers on a recent afternoon, conversation often drifted to Waymo, the robotaxi company.” HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) and Roger Williams (R-Texas) … North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein … Danielle Burr … former Reps. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.) … José Morales of the Democracy Fund … Potomac Strategy Group’s Matt Mackowiak … Vivian Schiller of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation … Ryan Hambleton … CNN’s Alli Gordon … Amazon’s Suzanne Beall and Tina Pelkey … POLITICO’s Ari Hawkins and Destiny Edeki… Bloomberg’s Laura Davison … … Slate’s Robyn Brigham … Ginger Gibson of the Retail Industry Leaders Association … MS NOW’s Casey Dolan … Jerry Johnson of Brodeur Partners … Dan Hilton of the American Trucking Associations … Jack Fencl of West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office … Jennifer Pflieger Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Giuseppe Macri and deputy editor Garrett Ross.
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