US speaker rejects AI pause, warns of losing edge to China

US House Speaker Mike Johnson has rejected calls to pause artificial intelligence development, arguing that doing so could give China an advantage over the United States. "We cannot have a moratorium on the development of AI," Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. "Because then we will lose our edge to China, and that has serious national security implications for every American family." They don't need the government to tell them to slow it down. If they want to slow it down, they should," he said. His comments come as calls to rein in AI are growing across the political spectrum amid concerns about what the technology could mean for jobs, energy costs and public safety. Unlikely allies US Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump and prominent voice on the US right, both called for restrictions on AI on Tuesday, as they appeared at the same event in Washington. Sanders warned of what he called the ...