Sen. Kelly to introduce bill to force tech companies to help workers displaced by AI

As both AI insiders and critics call on Congress to regulate artificial intelligence, Sen. Mark Kelly says he wants the industry to fund protections for workers replaced by the new technology.

Kelly took to the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the Make AI Work for Americans Act, forthcoming legislation his office says he will introduce later this week.

“These companies are getting rich off of a technology trained on the wealth of humanities research, knowledge, and work — our ideas and discoveries,” Kelly said. “My bill would require them to give some of that wealth back to us by investing in the American worker through an AI Horizon Fund.”

Kelly said the fund would provide some form of support for workers who lose their jobs to artificial intelligence.

“The fund would use the money we make from holding the tech industries accountable and invest it in training workers, paid service to career opportunities, and support for those whose jobs just disappear,” he said.

As he pushes the new legislation, Kelly faces an uphill battle in a Congress that has proven mostly unwilling to address artificial intelligence in any meaningful way, even as some of the top leaders in the industry warn that the technology is growing more powerful and could pose existential risks if left unrestrained.

Both President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have resisted calls to back immediate government regulation, arguing that could slow down growth in the domestic AI industry and give China an advantage.

“If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China,” Johnson told CNN. “And that is a threat to every single American. So, we've got to have balance. We got to have steady hands at the wheel.”

He instead called on the industry to spearhead efforts at new regulation. And Trump said he will create a task force but offered few details on what that would entail.

Kelly said waiting any longer that amounts to Congress abdicating its duties.

“So to those in Washington who think Congress can't or shouldn't take on this problem, let me ask you, why are you here?” he said. “This is the job. We weren't elected to just raise money or to trade stocks, or to rubber stamp a president's agenda. We were elected to make people's lives better.”

The exact nature of Kelly’s legislation and how that fund would work is still unclear. Kelly’s office did not respond to a request for a copy of the bill.