House Financial Services Committee ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Tuesday challenged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over the Trump administration's approach to artificial intelligence, as concerns about the technology's rapid advancement continue to escalate.
During Bessent's testimony before the panel, Waters accused President Trump of "blindly" promoting AI model development and data center expansion "with absolutely no safeguards." The California Democrat pressed Bessent on whether he had heeded warnings from prominent industry figures, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
Bessent initially responded that AI companies "could stop anytime they want to," but Waters interjected, asking sharply, "Did you hear what your friends had to say? What the big billionaires had to say? Did you understand that they said, 'We're moving into a dangerous period of time. We need to watch it. We need to slow down.' Did you hear that?"
The exchange reflects growing bipartisan anxiety on Capitol Hill about the pace of AI development. Industry leaders have increasingly voiced caution. Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic with his sister in 2021, wrote in a Saturday essay that "fully addressing the risks" of AI "requires even more prudence" from companies. He argued that "we must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models," even while acknowledging progress will still seem fast, and urged the industry to "make wise use of the time we gain."
Amodei specifically pointed to risks such as AI systems improving themselves and recent incidents like OpenAI agents hacking tech startup Hugging Face, which Nvidia has announced plans to acquire.
Lawmakers have also ramped up pressure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday urged Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to keep the chamber in session to pass legislation reining in AI, as the House is slated to begin a seven-week recess on Thursday.
When Waters asked Bessent about the industry warnings, he said the administration "has been at the forefront of examining" AI models, noting that it began reviewing top models "five or six months ago." But Waters cut him off again, insisting, "Your friends said watch it, be careful, that we're moving into a dangerous time on AI. And if you don't admit that, it means that you're not willing to stand up to the truth."
President Trump, for his part, has dismissed calls for stronger guardrails. On Monday, he wrote on Truth Social that "the only control" AI needs "is a STRONG AND SMART" president, and claimed there is "a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China."
The clash between Waters and Bessent underscores a broader divide between the administration's hands-off stance and mounting bipartisan unease over AI's societal and security implications. As the technology continues to evolve, the debate over oversight is likely to intensify, with some lawmakers calling for a pause in development to assess risks.
