AI advancements leave governors on edge

BOSTON — As talk of the apocalypse drives new calls for regulation of artificial intelligence and with federal lawmakers increasingly active on the topic, Gov. Maura Healey jumped into the debate Monday and said she wants to see “federal action to put guardrails on AI development before it’s too late.”

In Massachusetts, House and Senate lawmakers have been negotiating for more than a month on economic development bills that includes Senate-backed AI regulations. Any compromise the Legislature reaches would be sent to Healey’s desk for her signature, but she has not proposed her own set of AI regulations for the state.

The leaders of three major AI platforms — Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of x.AI — were in agreement this weekend that the advancement of so-called frontier AI models should be slowed down “so that risk prevention has time to keep up,” as Amodei wrote in a blog post. One former Anthropic researcher said “there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future” if these most advanced models continue to evolve at their current pace.

“When the people building the most powerful AI systems in the world are telling us there are serious risks, it’s the latest and clearest sign yet that we need more guardrails and protections. AI has enormous potential, but we cannot let this technology move faster than our ability to keep people safe,” Healey said in a statement Monday morning. “The responsibility for keeping people safe can’t rest with technology companies alone. We need strong, independent oversight and clear rules of the road that allow innovation to continue while protecting people, our economy and our national security. Federal oversight is a key component of every major industry, and AI shouldn’t be any different.”

Democratic Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Josh Stein of North Carolina and Republican Govs. Phil Scott of Vermont and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma sat for bipartisan interview with Shannon Bream of Fox News Sunday during a visit to Boston’s Old State House last week. During the interview, Scott said AI protections are needed.

“I think the biggest fear is AI itself,” Scott said, according to the interview that aired Sunday morning. “And from my standpoint, I think this is an example of where we have to work together with the feds, the Congress, the states, in establishing a regulatory process that protects us from AI in the future. Because the horse is already out of the barn. I mean, AI is here. We’re not going to stop it from happening, but we can present some guardrails to keep it within the spectrum to make sure that our citizens are protected. So I think that’s the important part.”

Moore said governors “want to embrace the power of what we think technologies and AI can do.”

“I think AI can be absolutely transformational when it comes to healthcare,” Moore said. “AI can be transformational when it comes to education and the democratization of education. I think all that is real. And we need guardrails. You know, this cannot be something that is being regulated from Washington and then dictated to our states because it’s our people that end up suffering the consequences of it.”

Stein was dubious about Congress agreeing on AI legislation.

“The feds should take the lead on this because it’s an industry of national scope, but none of us have any confidence in this Congress to solve the big problem,” Stein said.

Last summer, Healey said she thought “there’s a general acknowledgement we’ve got to have some regulation in the space, some guardrails around the space” and she said that she was glad Congress would take a look at it.

“It doesn’t preclude the state from doing it. But, you know, right now, look, I’m less focused on regulation and more focused on implementation,” Healey responded when asked whether that responsibility falls to states or the federal government.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected this week to take up a bill dealing with oversight of the data centers that drive the AI boom, and Democratic lawmakers are circulating a letter calling on the White House to lead a global effort to set rules for AI safety ahead of President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

On Saturday in Ireland, Trump seemed to reject the idea of slowing down AI advancements.

“We’re leading China in AI, we’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins,” Trump said, according to NPR. “And we can put guardrails, we can do this and that. But I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up.”

The president added to his thoughts with a social media post Monday.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted. “The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ — and we will continue to do so!”

U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan is one of the chief sponsors of the bipartisan Frontier Risk Oversight, National Transparency, Independent Evaluation, and Reporting Act. That legislation seeks to lay out a national, risk-based framework governing the development and deployment of the most advanced AI models. It would create a national standard for transparency, auditing, and reporting of catastrophic risk “to prevent a patchwork of state regulations,” Trahan’s office said.

“The models keep getting more powerful, and nothing but the honor system is holding AI companies accountable,” Trahan said Saturday in a post on X. “Congress can fix that. The question is whether we will before more damage is done.”

Colin Young is the deputy editor for State House News Service and State Affairs Pro Massachusetts. Reach him at [email protected].