GOP Attempts To Slow Pace of AI and Data Center Overreaction

Star Parker on Sep 23, 2026

I'm far from understanding chatbots, chips and AI technology, but I've worked in D.C. long enough to be suspicious when industry giants come begging for government regulations.

In the September 2026 essay "We Must Pace the Frontier," Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says that AI "could dramatically raise the quality of human life" but that it "brings risks, and because it is such a powerful technology, these risks are serious." He advocated "pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up."

The Anthropic CEO recommends embedding third-party evaluators at each frontier AI company to verify adherence to safety practices, coordination among companies within democratic countries to establish common safety standards, and for the U.S. and other democracies "to coordinate with authoritarian governments, to the extent possible, while taking seriously the challenges of verifying compliance."

Absent such action, Amodei warned that an AI swarm could become capable of "taking over the internet" within a year.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk jumped on the bandwagon to support Amodei's call to "slow the pace" of AI development and install guardrails.

AI is now a huge midterm voter concern as fearmongers took to the internet and ignited the masses to demand political action. Within a matter of weeks, every candidate for public office has been asked to banish data centers.

AI firms need data centers to support their functions, and while yes, these centers need vast amounts of electricity and water, certainly there must be a better solution than to slow down market forces.

Far too many voters, now scared that AI will destroy humanity and that data centers will consume all public utility, have great pace of not-in-my-backyard overreaction.

To get in front of this anxiety, President Donald Trump announced that he is creating an AI Force and plans to name an artificial intelligence czar as his administration pushes to accelerate the growth of AI in the U.S.

He said in a lengthy Truth Social post last week that his administration would resist efforts to restrict the rapidly developing technology.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are warning that a Chinese lead in AI would pose grave danger for the United States and the world.

"We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry," the post said. "Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!"

And they are not alone in supporting market forces and growth.

Former Palantir executive Will Thibeau chimed in that Anthropic and OpenAI support government regulations that smaller startups cannot absorb and would allow the large firms to entrench a "duopoly" at the expense of new innovators.

The key businessman behind chip technology for AI, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, also expressed some concern of government overreach in a recent CBS Sunday Mornings interview about this matter.

Kudos to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Brett Guthrie. R-Ky., chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, for addressing voter fears about data centers by moving quickly to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act before recessing for midterm elections campaigning. This act would require state public utility commissions to consider a strategy to make data centers pay their own way, instead of passing costs onto consumers.

Respect for capitalism is essential to ensure responsible and measured oversight of AI security and data center matters so as to not "slow the pace." First to market matters, and America First innovation in this technological frontier really matters.

Perhaps the AI giants looking to politicians for their moral compass need a reminder that President Ronald Reagan warned the scariest words in the English language are, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

And let's all remember that Reagan also schooled, The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides for human progress and peace among nations."

Star Parker is founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and author of "Necessary Noise, How Donald Trump Inflames the Culture War and Why this is Good News for America" (Hachette 2019). To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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