With help from Steven Overly

Former Republican congressman from Texas Will Hurd — somehow — became the first 2024 presidential candidate to release an official policy document about AI yesterday, comparing it to the discovery of nuclear fission as a world-disrupting technology.

Hurd’s statement is mostly in line with the ideas coming out of the worry-filled discussions in Washington right now. He urges trade controls, strict permitting, and investment in education, among other things, to ensure the U.S. simultaneously stays at the top of the AI heap and safe from theoretical harms.

Hurd has undeniable tech chops, but as a candidate he’s languishing in the single digits; his brand of technocratic conservatism isn’t exactly the heartbeat of Republican politics right now. (Spare a thought for crypto-happy Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who suspended his campaign last month after launching an AI-powered chatbot to hype it up.)

So… what do the leading Republicans think about AI?

None have released full-throated policy statements like Hurd’s — and none, not even the candidate who accepts Bitcoin donations, has it as a policy issue on their campaign page — but from their records and public statements it’s possible to at least take their temperature on the biggest tech issue of this moment. (We also emailed the campaigns to doublecheck, but only one got back to us before our deadline.)

Donald Trump

As former president, Trump has an actual track record with AI: His administration created a Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, and he signed an executive order in early 2019 that mostly ordered agencies to invest in AI products and research and created a data-sharing partnership with the private sector.

But that was then, and in the midst of this year’s hype about generative AI and AI risk, Trump hasn’t said very much about it at all. He did, however, share an AI-generated image of himself in prayer on his social media platform Truth Social. There’s also an X account (unaffiliated with his campaign) that features AI-generated images of the former president at various signal moments in human history, which has become a tongue-in-cheek, deeply surreal rallying point for very-online Republicans.

Ron DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t mention AI on his campaign site, but has been much more explicit in his discussion — and his use — of AI, echoing Elon Musk by fretting to an Iowa crowd about the risks of “woke” AI developers.

“You have some of these big AI companies, a lot of their data, you know, is more woke. It does have a little bit of a political agenda,” DeSantis said.

He’s also expressed the typical wariness toward China on AI, and sent a slightly mixed message on regulation and competition. DeSantis told conservative radio host Erick Erickson last month that although he wouldn’t yet fully outline his AI policy out of an interest in staying “nimble,” he’s concerned about “woke” AI companies that “want to get some regulation to protect them from competition.” He said he believes “you need the competition, but there’s got to be limits to what we’re going to allow,” because he doesn’t “think we can just put our head in the sand because China’s going to be using it from a defense perspective.”

His campaign allies, meanwhile, have been more than matching Trump when it comes to playing with the tools: In July a pro-DeSantis super PAC used AI-generated audio to put words in Donald Trump’s mouth attacking Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, and earlier to impose fighter jets onto a video of a DeSantis speech. His rapid response team also shared AI-generated images of Trump bear-hugging Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Perhaps surprisingly, the deeply tech-forward entrepreneur and political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy has not yet released his own explicit statement on AI, although he promised in July that there would be more “on this in coming months.” (He also announced yesterday he’s drafting a “crypto policy framework,” and, for what it’s worth, was personally compared to ChatGPT in what might turn out to be the last great Chris Christie onstage debate barb.)

He did, however, chat on his podcast earlier this year with former US Patent and Trademark Office head Andrei Iancu about the history of intellectual property rights in America and how they overlap with AI competitiveness. Ramaswamy lets Iancu do most of the talking, but his populist agenda of muscular government intervention in support of a hazily defined vision of “innovation” is on full display.

Tim Scott

A representative for the campaign of Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) pointed me to a recent interview where he emphasized to Fox Business that it will be a major force in the education world, and “the best way to prepare for that is to continue to work on making sure that students today learn how to think.”

Mike Pence

In response to a question from ABC News about the circumstances under which he would regulate AI, Pence said “the time has come for us to engage in a fulsome discussion about the impact of artificial intelligence, not just on our economy, but on our privacy.”

It’s not a particularly detailed response, but the fact that he has even a nascent AI position is a testament to how quickly it’s reached the center of the American political discussion.

Is the future of AI an open-source playing field — or a tightly controlled group of licensed models?

Clem Delangue, the French entrepreneur behind New York-based artificial intelligence company Hugging Face, has emerged as a forceful global advocate for the open-source version of the future. He’s urging U.S. policymakers not to impose regulations that heavily restrict access to AI, including proposals to require licenses for certain AI models, because they could entrench the tech industry’s major players.

He laid out his argument in an interview on POLITICO Tech, after he joined an AI forum convened by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “We don’t want to end up with a world where only a few control this very foundational technology,” Delangue said.

Hugging Face operates an open-source AI platform where some 15,000 developers share and build AI datasets, models and applications. That kind of ecosystem helps to generate new AI companies that can challenge big incumbents, but it would be stifled by regulations that are too sweeping or too onerous for small developers to navigate, Delangue contends.

Instead, he said, the government should prohibit specific uses of AI that could be problematic, and use the legal system to penalize those who break the rules. Developers could also be required to release open models in stages after they’ve undergone testing. Delangue rejected claims that open-source AI is inherently unsafe, even as he acknowledged some applications may be too dangerous for unfettered access, such as those that pose cybersecurity risks.

To hear the full interview with Delangue, and more with other tech leaders, subscribe to POLITICO Tech on Apple, Spotify, Google or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Washington turf war over crypto continues, as Republicans try to limit the Federal Reserve’s power over a potential U.S. central bank digital currency, or CBDC.

Yesterday Republicans in the House Financial Services Committee approved along party lines a bill that would force the Fed to get Congressional approval for any potential CBDC, as POLITICO’s Eleanor Mueller reported for Pro subscribers. That’s a big win for Republicans who have warned the government might use such tools as a form of digital surveillance, and for the crypto lobby, which has long pushed back on the Fed’s potential forays in this area.

As Eleanor notes, a few Democrats had previously backed the bill as well, but none voted for it. “At this point, nobody fully understands the potential benefits and challenges of CBDCs, or how their implementation could affect the preeminence of the U.S dollar and global finance more broadly,” ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said yesterday. “I am disappointed that Republicans have taken such a deeply anti-innovation stance.” — Derek Robertson

• A group of famous authors are suing OpenAI for using their writing.
• Amazon is spiffing up its home devices with new AI tools.
• OpenAI has unveiled DALL-E 3, with opt-out options for artists.
• An AI-powered, successful writer confesses she’s just not that good.
• Tesla’s business strategy has had major implications for the auto industry.

Stay in touch with the whole team: Ben Schreckinger ([email protected]); Derek Robertson ([email protected]); Mohar Chatterjee ([email protected]); Steve Heuser ([email protected]); Nate Robson ([email protected]) and Daniella Cheslow ([email protected]).

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