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Richard Blumenthal
US Senator from Connecticut who chaired the Senate’s first AI oversight hearings and co-authored a bipartisan licensing framework, warning that AI companies rush unsafe products to market and cannot be trusted to regulate themselves.
Roles
- 9 Jan 1991 – 5 Jan 2011Attorney General of Connecticut, State of ConnecticutSource →
- 3 Jan 2011 – presentUnited States Senator from Connecticut, United States SenateRe-elected in 2022; current term runs to January 2029.Source →
- 2023 – Jan 2025Chair, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, United States Senate Committee on the JudiciaryChaired the 2023 "Oversight of AI" hearings with Josh Hawley as ranking member; the chair passed to the Republican majority in January 2025.Source →
On the record
16 Sept 2026 · Interview · CNBC, “Squawk on the Street”
I think there is a balance here to be struck … But the point is that right now we’re on the verge of losing control completely
United States Senator from Connecticut, United States Senate at the time
Arguing that new AI products should face some form of “objective review” before release, in the week the frontier labs’ own leaders called for a slowdown. The ellipsis stands where the page prints an attribution tag (“,” Blumenthal said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “), and the second half ends on a further attribution comma, so it is rendered without final punctuation; the International Business Times copy of the same remark prints a full stop there.
Sen. Blumenthal urges AI oversight: ‘We’re on the verge of losing control’ →
30 Apr 2026 · Speech · Senate Judiciary Committee markup
We’ve learned a lesson we can’t rely on social media to regulate itself, “trust us, trust us,” I’m done with “trust us,” We can’t trust the Big Tech companies or AI enterprises to have a conscience and follow the dictates of that conscience.
United States Senator from Connecticut, United States Senate at the time
Spoken as the committee unanimously approved the GUARD Act, which would ban AI companions for minors and require chatbots to disclose they are not human.
29 Sept 2025 · Statement · Office of Senator Josh Hawley
AI companies have rushed to market with products that are unsafe for the public and often lack basic due diligence and testing.
United States Senator from Connecticut, United States Senate at the time
On the Artificial Intelligence Risk Evaluation Act (S. 2938), which would bar deployment of advanced models until they pass a Department of Energy evaluation for loss-of-control and weaponization risks.
Hawley, Blumenthal Introduce Bipartisan AI Evaluation Legislation to Put Americans First →
8 Sept 2023 · Statement · Office of Senator Richard Blumenthal
This bipartisan framework is a milestone—the first tough, comprehensive legislative blueprint for real, enforceable AI protections. It should put us on a path to addressing the promise and peril AI portends.
Chair, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary at the time
The framework proposed a licensing regime run by an independent oversight body, liability for harms and a Section 230 carve-out for AI.
Blumenthal & Hawley Announce Bipartisan Framework on Artificial Intelligence Legislation →
16 May 2023 · Speech · Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law
Too often we have seen what happens when technology outpaces regulation, the unbridled exploitation of personal data, the proliferation of disinformation, and the deepening of societal inequalities.
Chair, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary at the time
He opened the hearing with these words read by an AI clone of his voice from a ChatGPT-written script, then asked what would have happened had it endorsed Ukraine surrendering.
Transcript: Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Oversight of AI →