Dem Presidential Hopeful Calls For American Companies To Be Regulated By An International ‘AI Treaty’

U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) called Sunday for government-appointed inspectors to be placed inside leading artificial intelligence laboratories, and for an international treaty that would regulate and govern American AI companies.

“A capable president would move swiftly to secure and reassure the American people. Rush inspectors into frontier labs, fortify the nation against bioterrorism, demand legislation from Congress and lead the world toward an AI treaty,” the senator said while speaking at a campaign rally in Athens, Georgia.

“But President Trump is compromised. A capable Congress would engage every committee in investigation and legislation to act swiftly and wisely. Those CEOs would be under oath next week. But instead, the president and the Speaker of the House sit on their hands and hope for the best

Ossoff described Congress as “an ancient establishment barely capable of email” that “sleepwalks into a technological revolution, while the president dismantles precautions and calls us fools for worrying.” He also said, “I refuse to leave my girls a world as dark and dangerous and cruel as this one threatens to become, and I can’t stop thinking about it.”

POLL: Will You Support Trump And His Candidates In The Midterms?

A capable president would move swiftly to secure and reassure the American people, rush inspectors into frontier labs, fortify the nation against bioterrorism, demand legislation from Congress, and lead the world toward an AI treaty. But President Trump is compromised.…

— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) September 13, 2026

The remarks came one day after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier,” which called for a slowdown of AI development. “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain,” Amoedei wrote.

He proposed independent evaluators with employee-level access inside frontier labs, shared safety standards among companies in democratic countries, and later international coordination. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote that he agreed “we need to pace the frontier” and that independent evaluators were “a great idea.” Elon Musk and Google DeepMind chair Demis Hassabis also expressed support.

The essay’s publication followed near unanimous talking points from prominent Democrats and a bill introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), which would effectively end American AI development and place stringent regulations on growth, with harsh penalties and potential prison sentences for anyone found to be in violation.

The measure would permanently ban development and deployment of superintelligent AI and temporarily pause advanced AI development until a federal regulator established safety rules. It would also set U.S. policy to pursue international agreements to prevent superintelligence from being developed elsewhere.

Former President Barack Obama said he was “encouraged this week to see the leaders of the frontier labs agree on the need for them to slow down the pace of AI development” and called that “a good and necessary first step.” He added that Washington should produce “concrete proposals, laws and regulations that deal with serious safety concerns.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also called for a “pause” on AI development and for international regulation of American companies, as did several additional prominent Democrats.

RELATED: OpenAI Hires Chuck Schumer’s Daughter Amid Dem Calls For AI Development ‘Pause’