AI & Tech Brief: Exclusive | Cruz asks for Republican AI priorities

Ah, the great legislative machine stirs — and by 'stirs' I mean it has sent a politely worded memo asking everyone to please, if they can find the time, jot down some thoughts on AI. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz has formally requested that all Republicans on the committee submit their AI priorities, ahead of a 'potential vote' on an AI package. Potential. As in, maybe, at some point, if the wind is right. It's like watching someone plan a fire drill while the building is already ablaze.

Let's be clear: the committee is asking for priorities now. After years of hearings, task forces, and white papers, we are at the stage of 'what do you think?' This is the same Ted Cruz who once compared net neutrality to Obamacare, so the bar for coherent tech policy is already on the floor. The Republicans will submit their wish list, full of 'innovation' and 'light-touch regulation' and probably a dig at Section 230, and then — fingers crossed — maybe there will be a vote. Sometime. The asking-for-priorities phase is Congress's specialty: it produces zero binding outcomes but plenty of press releases.

Meanwhile, every other major economy has already passed some form of AI regulation. The EU has its AI Act, China has its generative AI rules, even Britain has a white paper that actually led to something. But here in the land of the free, we're still circulating memos. Cruz's request is a perfect microcosm of American AI governance: cautious, partisan, and stunningly slow. One can almost hear the frontier models evolving faster than the subcommittee can schedule its next markup. But hey, at least they're asking. That's leadership, right?