Microsoft’s chief scientist, Dr Eric Horvitz, slammed Donald Trump’s push to ban states from regulating AI. He warns this will slow AI progress, not speed it up.
The Trump administration wants a 10-year ban stopping US states from making their own AI laws. The goal: avoid slowing the race with China. Tech investors like Andreessen Horowitz back it, pushing for rules only on consumer use — not research.
Horvitz, who advised Joe Biden, spoke at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence on Monday. He said the ban could "hold us back" and hurt not just science, but real-world AI use. 
“It’s up to us as scientists to communicate to government agencies, especially those right now who might be making statements about no regulation, [that] this is going to hold us back.
Guidance, regulation … reliability controls are part of advancing the field, making the field go faster in many ways.”
Despite Horvitz’s stance, Microsoft is reportedly lobbying with Google, Meta, and Amazon for the ban on state-level AI rules. It’s in Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” aiming to pass by July 4.
University of California’s Stuart Russell also spoke out, warning about the risks of unregulated AI.
“Why would we deliberately allow the release of a technology which even its creators say has a 10% to 30% chance … of causing human extinction? We would never accept anything close to that level of risk for any other technology.”
The clash shows tension inside Big Tech. Microsoft backs the ban lobby but its lead scientist calls for regulation. The debate heats up amid fears that fast, unchecked AI development could be catastrophic.
Microsoft has poured $14 billion into OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicts humanoid robots roaming streets in 5 to 10 years.
The politics of AI regulation just got messier.
Related: OpenAI boss accuses Meta of trying to poach staff with $100m sign-on bonuses
Microsoft declined to comment.
