How MAGA learned to love AI safety - Transformer

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Texas state senator Angela Paxton first heard about the proposed sweeping 10-year moratorium on states passing any regulation of the AI industry in late June or early July, after the Texas legislature had already finished its biennial session. “ My first reaction was: wait a minute, we just passed important legislation that will protect children that is related to AI technology,” Paxton, who is a Republican, says. “This moratorium [would] undo that — and it’s two years before we’ll be back where we can do anything about it.” The provision was slipped into the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — the name President Trump gave the 2025 reconciliation bill, which essentially sets the federal budget — quietly enough that opposition only really picked up after it had already passed the House. But when it did, it spanned the political spectrum: a rare alliance of left-wing Democrats like Senators Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders, union leaders, ultra-religious conservatives, and far-right populists like S

L-R: Marjorie Taylor, Steve Bannon and Josh Hawley. Credit: Getty/ Andrew Harnik/Alex Wong/Anna Moneymaker By Nicky Woolf Texas state senator Angela Paxton first heard about the proposed sweeping 10-year moratorium on states passing any regulation of the AI industry in late June or early July, after the Texas legislature had already finished its biennial session. “ My first reaction was: wait a minute, we just passed important legislation that will protect children that is related to AI technology,” Paxton, who is a Republican, says. “This moratorium [would] undo that — and it’s two years…

How MAGA learned to love AI safety - Transformer

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