Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) became a rare Republican to openly criticize President Donald Trump over his approach to artificial intelligence.
Speaking at Tuesday’s “Pro-Human Assembly 2026,” headlined by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, Roy offered a conservative voice to AI skepticism. Part of his perspective was to argue for a democratic approach to managing AI, disagreeing with Trump’s perspective on how to handle it.
“The president said yesterday that he should be making the decisions about AI. I disagree,” Roy said.
Instead, Roy argued for more “leadership from our elected officials,” saying there needed to be vigilant congressional action to help manage the future with AI.
“We the people need to decide how to structure our lives” around AI, he said.
Roy also leveled criticism against tech mogul and Trump ally Elon Musk, voicing skepticism about his proposals around a Universal Living Wage.
The Texas Republican said he wasn’t necessarily opposed to the measure on principle, but, “If we’re gonna go down that road, it shouldn’t be Elon that decides.”
Roy also agreed with many conservatives’ hesitancy to believe in the goodwill of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who have called for a slowdown in AI development over the past week.
“Do you think they’re totally selfless in spirit on that?” he asked, ceding that the decision on whether to slow down development involved “complex questions.”
Aside from his criticism of the government’s handling of AI, Roy argued for an AI policy that centered on humanity, harkening back to his religious views. He expressed his belief that humans were created by God to have dominion over the Earth and technology, not the other way around.
CHIP ROY SUGGESTS FEDERAL INTERVENTION WARRANTED ON AI DESPITE BEING ‘LIMITED GOVERNMENT GUY’
“We are not supposed to be tools for data collection,” he said.
Partisan lines have begun to form around AI development, with Republicans generally favoring a deregulated environment to beat China in the AI race, while Democrats have expressed strong skepticism about AI altogether. Tuesday’s summit aims to make AI skepticism a bipartisan effort, as evidenced by Roy being given one of the opening speaking slots.
Continue reading...
[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
