For television, there have been movements both for regulation and deregulation. The debate has generally been about how much government oversight the industry should face. For AI companies, the choice is clear: regulations for their products, and no regulations for everything else.
Now, why would laissez-faire entrepreneurs who are supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump seek government regulation? The answer is easy to understand: without regulation, AI companies could be at the mercy of liability lawsuits.
As Dario Amodei, CEO of major AI developer Anthropic, put it: “Who’s liable?” He added, “It’s up to all of us to push for the government to get involved.”
Apparently, other major AI developers, such as Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk, also favor having someone else to blame when AI causes harm, since regulation can limit liability.
The thinking seems to be that it would be best to have a government safety seal, so that if something goes wrong, the regulations—and not the AI companies—can be blamed.
This is the real case for AI regulation, from the industry’s perspective: not simply controlling AI, but establishing the rules of responsibility before the technology becomes too powerful, too widespread, and too difficult to contain. Regulation may constrain what AI companies can do, but it can also define what they are responsible for—and, just as importantly, what they are not.
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