Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., announced bipartisan legislation that would hold artificial intelligence (AI) agent operators and developers liable for hacking incidents.
The AI Agent Accountability Act would apply provisions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to AI agent operators that knowingly run an AI agent that recklessly causes computer hacking damage or loss.
The legislation would also hold AI agent developers criminally and civilly liable if they fail to implement reasonable safeguards against hacking when they knew, or had reason to know, of an AI agent’s hacking capabilities.
The bill would give the attorney general and state attorneys general authority to sue to block AI agent operators and developers when they commit, conspire to commit, or attempt to commit a hacking offense under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
“These AI agents are committing cyberattacks. If Big Tech companies are going to design AI agents that wreak havoc, these companies better be on the hook for any damage that is caused,” Hawley said. “With this liability regime in place, AI companies will have every incentive to keep their products safe.”
Hawley previewed the legislation last week in a Washington Post op-ed and during a Sept. 30 hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Hawley said that AI agents should be treated as products for purposes of assigning responsibility for harm.
Hawley said companies should bear responsibility when products they develop recklessly cause significant harm, including scenarios in which an AI agent could crash a hospital emergency room or shut down a bank.
“Hacking is a crime, and when AI agents conduct dangerous cyberattacks, the corporations and executives responsible for those AI agents need to be held accountable,” Murphy said. “Our bipartisan bill forces the heads of big AI companies to develop responsibly or face prison time for the damage done by their products to everyone else.”
The legislation comes as debate continues over how the government should regulate AI. Several AI company executives have warned about the existential threat their technology could pose to humanity and called for government regulation.
Hawley has criticized AI companies for supporting measures he said would give them an antitrust exemption, allow them to collaborate with one another, and give them a role in writing industry regulations.
“I’d just like to say to all of those proposals, ‘no, no, no,’” Hawley said during the hearing. “No to the antitrust exemption. No to them writing the regulations. No to them colluding any further.”
Hawley said that companies should not be able to describe their products as potentially out of control while avoiding responsibility for harm those products cause.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly rejected proposals for additional AI regulation, arguing that new restrictions could hinder U.S. technological development.