Treasury secretary warns against liability exemptions for AI labs

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged lawmakers on Tuesday not to grant liability exemptions to AI labs, emphasizing that creators should be held accountable for their technology. Appearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Bessent stated that the government should not provide these labs with a 'blank check on liability,' as it could hinder safety and innovation. His remarks followed calls for an AI slowdown, including an essay by Anthropic’s Dario Amodei advocating for a pause in model development. Bessent also highlighted the administration’s collaboration with financial institutions on AI safety, citing the recent Hugging Face cyberattack and the formalization of efforts through the Gold Eagle clearinghouse. He called for more U.S.-based open-source models to counter China’s influence and warned against regulatory capture by large labs.