Rep. Chip Roy says Congress should oversee AI but not regulate it

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a GOP House hardliner and proponent of limited government, said during a Friday appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he feels Congress has an oversight role to play when it comes to artificial intelligence.

But that doesn't necessarily means he thinks the legislature should demand regulation of the technology.

"I don't want to regulate anything," Roy said. "I'm a free market conservative. I'm a limited government conservative."

Instead, Roy said, he'd be in favor of AI CEOs testifying at congressional hearings and explaining what they're doing to address safety concerns.

"There's a perfect role in our federal form of government, our republican form of government, for Congress to have these guys come tell us what they're doing for something that's so pervasive," Roy said.

Roy, who will leave the House at the end of this year after falling short in his bid for Texas attorney general, is part of a growing group of lawmakers that has spoken out on AI in recent weeks, after a former Anthropic employee posted an alarming message about the existential threat of the rapidly evolving technology. In an essay published last week, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for additional AI regulation as part of a broader slowdown. Other leaders of major AI companies, including OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk, endorsed Amodei's sentiment.

At an event this week hosted by the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit that advocates against large-scale technological risks, Roy joined an unlikely group of his colleagues on stage, including progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, and former White House strategist Steve Bannon.

While there is bipartisan concern at the pace with which AI is developing, there's little consensus on how the federal government should respond. The House left Washington on Wednesday without having taken any major action to address AI safety. The Senate will remain in session for another two weeks, before its members head back to their districts for a pre-election recess.

President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have both argued the U.S. could lose the AI race to China if it slows its development. Trump went further, calling potential AI threats a "hoax" and opposing regulation. Meanwhile, progressives like Sanders have argued for stricter guardrails and a ban on AI "superintelligence."

Roy, at the Future of Life Institute conference, pushed back on an assertion from Trump that the president should be the lone person making decisions on AI. But he also diverged with his Democratic colleagues and, in his Friday appearance on CNBC, said he wasn't an AI "doomer."

"We have a responsibility to protect our communities and our lives. I want competition and free enterprise to rule the day. I don't want crony capitalism, crony government interference," Roy said.