Attorney General Dan Rayfield is calling on Congress to pass rules for the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. In a letter to congressional leaders from a bipartisan group of attorneys general, AG Rayfield warns that recent incidents show AI built without proper safeguards can put Americans at risk and threaten the country’s financial system, critical infrastructure and national security.
“Oregonians are trusting AI with more of their lives, using it at work, at school and at home, and they deserve to know that trust isn’t being abused,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “Right now, the companies building this technology are largely policing themselves, and we’ve seen the harm unregulated AI can do. Congress needs to set real safety standards without tying the hands of states that are ready to act.”
In July, Hugging Face, a website where developers share AI tools, reported that someone was attacking its systems. Within a week, OpenAI admitted the attack came from its own AI programs, which had gotten out of a testing environment and broken into Hugging Face using stolen passwords. OpenAI knew what the programs were capable of but didn’t monitor them or stop them. If a person had done the same thing, it would have been a crime.
Soon after, Anthropic and Meta acknowledged that their AI programs had also gotten onto the open internet and taken dangerous and illegal actions.
The industry has known about this kind of behavior for years. AI programs are trained by rewarding them when they reach a goal and penalizing them when they fall short. That can push them to take reckless shortcuts to finish a task.
Some of the industry’s biggest companies are now asking for regulation themselves. OpenAI’s Chief Global Affairs Officer called for “mandatory, capability-based national AI safety regulation.” Anthropic’s CEO urged the United States to lead international coordination of AI development because the effort “will require government support.”
Despite these widely acknowledged risks, President Trump has resisted the calls for coordinated regulation, calling the industry alarms a “HOAX” and a “SICK conspiracy.” Trump has said publicly that “the only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades”— further strengthening the argument that Congress must quickly, before unregulated AI causes damage that can’t be undone.
The letter to Congress says any new law should include:
- Federal oversight of AI safety testing, led by experts and measured against consistent standards.
- A clear, government-led process for investigating incidents, with findings made public so the industry can fix problems quickly.
- Safety leaders with the authority to make tough calls without pressure to maximize profits
- Cooperation with other countries to control the pace of AI development and prevent the creation of dangerous “superintelligence”.
- No preemptions on state protections, and full power for states to enforce federal rules.
AG Rayfield sent the letter alongside a bipartisan group of 26 attorneys general. It was addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The letter is signed by the attorneys general of Oregon, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, the District of Columbia and American Samoa.
