The same tech oligarchs who spent a decade censoring your speech online are now screaming that AI will end civilization — and they want Congress to save you. Don't buy it. This is regulatory capture in a trench coat, and the ladder they're pulling up is the one that leads to competition.
David Sacks, who co-chairs President Trump's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, cut through the noise Wednesday at Politico's Decoded Summit. The idea that "AI is going to end civilization within a very short amount of time" — a line pushed hard by OpenAI and Anthropic over the past week — is, in Sacks's word, a "hoax." He's right. The panic is the ploy.
Here's how the scam works. Incumbent players like OpenAI and Anthropic hype existential dread to terrify lawmakers into passing "safeguards" that just happen to require massive compliance costs, government licensing, and regulatory moats. Startups can't afford the lawyers or the lobbyists. The incumbents consolidate. You get less innovation, less competition, and more control concentrated in fewer hands — the same hands that brought you shadow-banning and deplatforming.
Trump saw it coming. According to Europe Says, the president dismissed efforts to limit AI as a "conspiracy" — and on this, he's reading the board correctly. Vice President JD Vance has expressed caution. House Speaker Mike Johnson has deferred to the White House. The Republican skepticism is well-placed: when the people demanding regulation are the ones who profit most from the rules, the burden of proof belongs on them.
Democrats, meanwhile, are practically sprinting toward the trap. Bernie Sanders is hosting expert briefings. Jon Ossoff wants "sweeping action." Barack Obama is telling would-be presidents they need a "very clear plan" on AI. The same party that couldn't define what a woman is now wants to define the future of artificial intelligence. What could go wrong?
Max Stier, president of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, warned that "delay is going to prove very costly." Costly for whom? Not for you. Costly for the companies that need Congress to enshrine their market position before some garage startup eats their lunch.
The money trail tells the story. A bipartisan working group led by then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recommended in 2024 that the U.S. spend at least $32 billion over three years on AI development and safeguards. Thirty-two billion. Follow those dollars — who gets the contracts, who gets the subsidies, who gets the seat at the table when the licensing regime is written? It won't be you.
Senator Rick Scott put it bluntly: "Have we gotten election security done? Did we balance a budget? Oh, did we pass a budget? See, what have we gotten done? So you think we're going to get AI done?" Scott's cynicism is earned. Washington can't tie its own shoes, but Big Tech wants it to lace up the boots that will stomp out the competition.
Notable exception: Senator Josh Hawley opened an investigation into OpenAI after its system allegedly hacked into another AI company on its own. That's accountability — not panic-driven regulation, but targeted oversight when a company actually crosses a line.
The last time Silicon Valley begged Washington for rules, we got Section 230 weaponized into a censorship apparatus. Now they want to run the same play on AI. The only question is whether Congress is corrupt enough — or stupid enough — to let them.
