The nation's top prosecutor wants to go after clear lawbreakers, not regulate through intimidation, drawing a sharp line from Biden-era tech enforcement.
Attorney General Todd Blanche told Bloomberg News that the Department of Justice will take a restrained approach to policing artificial intelligence companies and their executives. In his framing, prosecutors should chase actual crimes, not serve as de facto regulators for an industry still finding its footing.
The 88th Attorney General, confirmed on August 8, 2026 after serving as Deputy Attorney General and then acting AG since April, laid out a philosophy that amounts to: if there’s no clear statutory violation, DOJ has no business showing up at your door.
A deliberate break from Biden-era enforcement #
Blanche criticized the previous administration for burning “countless prosecutors’ hours and money” using enforcement actions as a substitute for legislation in the technology sector. He thinks the last DOJ treated prosecution as regulation, and he wants to stop doing that.
The DOJ will still enforce existing laws when AI companies break them, but it won’t go hunting for creative ways to expand its jurisdiction into what he sees as regulatory territory belonging to Congress or executive agencies.
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The state-level wildcard #
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier proposed legislation on September 8, just a week before Blanche’s September 15 interview, that would hold companies liable when their AI systems are involved in criminal activity. Rather than asking whether a company’s executives knowingly broke the law, it would ask whether the company’s product contributed to someone else breaking the law.
Blanche acknowledged the broader policy landscape but emphasized that the DOJ’s role would be supporting administration policies rather than preemptively shaping AI regulatory outcomes. He specifically noted antitrust considerations as one area where DOJ would remain engaged.
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