U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett proposes cabinet-level position on AI

Good news from Washington: the robots are getting a dedicated civil servant. U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) has introduced the Artificial Intelligence Governance and Emerging Threats Act, which would create a cabinet-level body — the U.S. Office of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Threats — to 'coordinate federal policy' on artificial intelligence and other emerging technology threats. Cabinet-level. So the grand strategy for the defining technology of the century is an org chart with a Secretary in it, presumably with a lanyard. Somewhere, a deputy assistant secretary for synergistic alignment is already drafting the mission statement.

Notice the name. The office is titled for the threats rather than the technology — Governance and Emerging Technology Threats — which is a bit like calling the fire brigade the Department of Burning Buildings. And the verb carrying the entire policy is 'coordinate': Washington already has agencies, subcommittees and working groups; what it has never had is agreement, and agreement is not a thing you can install by handing it a letterhead and a parking space. A cabinet secretary coordinates. A cabinet secretary also needs Senate confirmation, a budget line, a deputy or six, and a five-year strategic plan whose first deliverable is a memo about the second deliverable.

Barrett represents Charlotte, which is not, at time of writing, the global centre of the compute build-out — that is not a knock on him, it is the tell. The people who write the AI rules rarely live where the AI is. There is also nothing else in this as excerpted — no co-sponsors, no cost estimate, no timeline, no committee referral — which is the honest condition of most bills on day one: a press release with a font. Still, credit where it is due: someone in Washington has finally clocked that frontier models deserve a seat at the grown-ups' table, and has thoughtfully provided a chair. Whether it gets a vote remains, as ever, somebody else's committee.