Senators debate liability for ‘rogue’ AI agents

In a stance that puts him at odds with much of his party and the White House, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., used a Senate hearing on Wednesday to call for new artificial intelligence regulations, including through his own upcoming legislation that would clarify liability for “rogue” AI hacking incidents.

At the hearing on national security risks from those attacks held by the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee’s  Disaster Management, District of Columbia and Census Subcommittee, which he chairs, Hawley asked lawmakers to focus on how AI firms can be held accountable for the actions of their agents.

“At the end of the day, they’re a product, and if you make that product in a reckless kind of way, and that product causes … significant harm and damage — they crash a hospital ER, they shut down a bank so that folks can’t get their money — if that happens, then it’s the people who made it who should be responsible,” Hawley said.

On Tuesday, Hawley announced plans to introduce legislation that would make AI firms liable for reckless design and users liable for reckless deployment. He says the bill would also make it clear that criminal penalties for hacking apply to AI companies or to users who deploy an AI agent to commit crimes.