I feel there is a strong interest by large incumbents in the AI space to push for this sort of regulation. Models are increasingly cheap to run and open source and there isn't too much of a defensible moat in the model itself.
Instead, existing AI companies are using the government to increase the threshold for newcomers to enter the field. A regulation for all AI companies to have a testing regime that requires a 20 headstrong team is easy to meet for incumbents, but impossible for newcomers.
Now, this is not to diminish that there are genuine risks in AI - but I'd argue that these will be exploited, if not by US companies, then by others. And the best weapon against AI might in fact be AI. So, pulling the ladder up behind the existing companies might turn out to be a major mistake.
Instead, existing AI companies are using the government to increase the threshold for newcomers to enter the field. A regulation for all AI companies to have a testing regime that requires a 20 headstrong team is easy to meet for incumbents, but impossible for newcomers.
Now, this is not to diminish that there are genuine risks in AI - but I'd argue that these will be exploited, if not by US companies, then by others. And the best weapon against AI might in fact be AI. So, pulling the ladder up behind the existing companies might turn out to be a major mistake.