The Trump administration’s embrace of legal liability to enforce artificial intelligence safety sets the stage for future conflicts over who foots the bill when AI models go rogue: the companies that design the systems or the people that deploy the technology.
Holding AI developers financially responsible for the safety of their products has won support from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and former White House AI czar David Sacks, who argue that existing liability laws would be more effective than new rules. President Donald Trump, in spurning new AI safeguards, has taken it a step further, saying the Justice Department should intervene if models get out of hand.
In a sign of the administration’s increased willingness to invoke current law to address safety concerns, Trump’s newly launched AI task force late Friday warned developers that they are required to report and resolve security incidents or face potential unspecified consequences.