‘AI is coming whether you like it or not. And so the question is, which nation wins the race?’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) this week joined Axios and Politico’s AI summits to discuss his new framework for AI policy, what’s at stake in the AI race, and the legislation he has passed and proposed to keep kids safe online.  

On the AI race with China:  

“AI is going to be even more transformative than the internet. It's going to change everything about how we live our lives. And if we lose the race to China on AI, it'll also be devastating for global values because whoever wins the race for AI, that nation's values are going to be reflected in AI. If China wins the race for AI, AI will be a tool for global surveillance and control as carried out by a communist nation. We cannot lose that race.” 

On limiting government regulation:   

President Bill Clinton, at the dawn of the internet, signed into law an executive order that memorialized a light touch regulatory approach to the internet. Congress worked hand in hand with him while the internet was a nascent technology. While the United States was going down that road, Europe took a fundamentally different approach and decided to engage in a heavy-handed prior approval regulatory approach. The consequences of that decision were massive.

In 1993, the economy of the United States and the economy of the EU were virtually identical. Today, the American economy is more than 50% larger than the EU. And there are two drivers of that: tech and the shale revolution. There virtually no major tech companies in Europe. It killed the tech industry and virtually every major tech company in the world is in the United States. We won that race. I think we are at a similar fork in the road.

On his new SANDBOX Act for AI:  

“This would let innovators go to regulators and ask for either an exception or modification to existing regulations to allow them to innovate.” 

On mitigating AI dangers: 

“I would point out that, with Senator Klobuchar, we authored and passed the only law in modern times regulating AI and that is the Take It Down Act. Deep fake non-consensual intimate images have increased more than 3,000% last year. More than 95% of the victims are women or teenage girls. And you now have a legal right if you are victimized by this to notify the tech platform and they have a federal statutory responsibility to take it down.” 

On keeping kids safe online:  

“Number one, [my proposed Kids Off Social Media Act] prohibits children under 13 from having social media accounts. Number two, it prohibits tech companies from using algorithmic boosting for kids under 17 because so much garbage is pushed to our kids. And number three is a different bill that we merged, called the Eyes on the Board Act, that says that any school receiving federal funds has to block social media on campus because when kids are in class, they ought to be looking at the board and listening to the teacher and not posting on Instagram. I think we need to do a lot more to be protecting kids online.” 

Watch the full Axios event here and the Politico event here.  

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