Maura Healey Urges Federal Guardrails on AI as House, Senate Negotiate Massachusetts Rules

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said she wants to see "federal action to put guardrails on AI development before it's too late," as House and Senate lawmakers in the state negotiated AI regulations as part of economic development bills.

“"federal action to put guardrails on AI development before it's too late."”

NBC Boston

Healey said the responsibility for keeping people safe "can’t rest with technology companies alone," and she called for "strong, independent oversight" and "clear rules of the road" that protect people, the economy and national security.

Al-ʿArabīyah

In the same debate, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and other major platform leaders agreed this weekend that the advancement of so-called frontier AI models should be slowed down "so that risk prevention has time to keep up," while a former Anthropic researcher warned there was "a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future."

NBC Boston also reported that the U.S. NHouse of Representatives is expected this week to take up a bill dealing with oversight of the data centers that drive the AI boom, and that Democratic lawmakers are circulating a letter calling on the White House to lead a global effort to set rules for AI safety ahead of President Donald Trump's upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

President Donald Trump dismissed calls for AI regulation, writing on Truth Social that "The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT," and he claimed the U.S. has "tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!"

CBS News reported that Trump’s stance came as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called for a serious slowdown on AI development, while Vice President JD Vance said it feels like a "Trojan horse" when frontier AI tech companies ask the government to regulate them.C

BBC

Reuters said Trump appeared to play down concerns expressed by industry leaders, arguing the U.S. already has guardrails in place to regulate and prosecute AI companies, and it linked the renewed alarm to Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon’s resignation over the belief that the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."

Reuters also reported that Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in Washington, and it said U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson expected Trump to meet with AI executives this week or "early next week" to focus on "the responsibilities of the companies to maintain safety" and "what role, if any, the government has to play."

As the U.S. debate intensified, China rejected the idea that it is in a "malicious competition" with the United States over AI control, with a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun telling reporters that "threat, confrontation, and malicious competition speeches only disrupt the global governance process of AI and benefit no one."

“"threat, confrontation, and malicious competition speeches only disrupt the global governance process of AI and benefit no one."”

BBC

BBC reported that as calls for AI regulation in the United States grow stronger, it highlighted warnings from Jacob Coxon and calls for a slowdown from Dario Amodei, while also quoting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that "We need ways to ensure that alignment and safety techniques stay at the forefront of progress in model capabilities."

In Washington, CNN said Democratic lawmakers pressured House Speaker Mike Johnson to reconvene the chamber immediately to work on AI regulation, citing what they describe as the "catastrophic risk posed by advanced artificial intelligence," while Johnson resisted those calls by arguing that "we will lose the race to China" if Congress rushes an emergency session.

CNN also reported that former President Barack Obama told Democrats to make AI regulation a central part of their agenda during a private fundraiser, warning the technology could be dangerous "if we don’t get on top of it," and it said Obama urged whoever runs in the 2028 presidential election to have a "very clear plan" for AI safety and guardrails.