Ted Cruz using Commerce Chairmanship to kill AI regulations he dismisses as "disastrous”

Now-Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz back in 2016 when he was running for president against now-President Donald Trump. Photo: Matt Laslo

Who?

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) — Chair, Senate Commerce Committee

LISTEN: Laslo & Cruz

Ask a Pol asks:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) — now America’s Secretary of State — came out of the AI forum just ahead of you and he’s worried about putting constraints on American generative AI, because those regulations wouldn't apply to China and others. Is that still your thinking?

Key Cruz:

“I think if the Democrats push through restrictions on innovation and AI it would be disastrous for America,” Sen. Ted Cruz exclusively told Ask a Pol founder Matt Laslo upon exiting a classified, all-Senate AI national security forum in 2023.

ICYMI — Laslo first sold this interview to WIRED magazine

Source: The Ghost of Privacy Past Haunts the Senate’s AI Future, Matt Laslo, WIRED; August 4, 2023.

ICYMI — Top Senate Commerce Dem accuses Cruz of undermining states’ AI rights

Top Dem accuses Ted Cruz of impeding states' AI rights | "They can’t even protect themselves"

Caught our ear:

“Interesting,” Cruz told us. “Interesting.”

Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interviews with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), slightly edited for clarity.

Sen. Ted Cruz and his aides walk past congressional press corps on way to an underground classified all-Senate briefing. Photo: Matt Laslo

TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Ted Cruz (7-11-2023)

SCENE: Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo greets Sen. Ted Cruz after he exits an all-Senate AI forum hosted by then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and a bipartisan group of senators during the 118th Congress (2023-24).

Matt Laslo: “Hey, how are you Sen. Cruz?”

Ted Cruz: “Good.”

ML: “How’d that hearing go — the briefing?”

TC: “Interesting.”

ML: “Scary?”*

*Cruz had just left the 2nd all-Senate AI forum, which was classified because it focused on potential defense and national security implications of generative AI. Senators were briefed by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, among others.

TC: “Interesting. There are lots of potential threats from AI. There lots of potential opportunities from AI. I think we need to be straightforward and direct in dealing with both.”

ML: “Rubio came out saying he's worried about putting constraints on the US, because they wouldn't apply to China and others. Is that still kind of your [position]?”

ICYMI — Cruz & Secretary of State Marco Rubio agree

TC: “I think if the Democrats push through restrictions on innovation and AI…”

An elevator arrives for Cruz.

TC: “…it would be disastrous for America.”

Cruz enters elevator.

ML: “Preciate ya.”

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