Yassamin Ansari

United States Representative for Arizona’s 3rd district, who is urging the President to lead an international treaty effort on frontier AI and warns that no country will benefit from artificial superintelligence because it is a technology that will go beyond human control, while unsafe AI products have already led people to suicide and guided them towards mass shootings.

Roles

3 Jan 2025 – presentMember of the U.S. House of Representatives for Arizona's 3rd congressional district, United States House of RepresentativesDemocrat; previously served on the Phoenix City Council from 2021 to 2024. In September 2026 she began circulating a letter urging the President to lead a coordinated international effort on frontier AI.Source →

On the record

17 Sept 2026 · Interview · CNN
We have these massive AI companies racing to build this technology. They're putting products out there that are not safe. AI has already led to people committing suicide, to guiding people into how to commit mass shootings. We've already seen instances of this. It's just the beginning.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Arizona's 3rd congressional district, United States House of Representatives at the time
From the same interview, answering the argument that lawmakers do not understand AI well enough to regulate it; she compares the case to seatbelts and to the FDA's review of pharmaceutical drugs.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari: Lawmakers Don't Need To Be AI Experts To Create Effective Regulations →
17 Sept 2026 · Interview · CNN
The truth also is that, you know, nobody in the world, no country, whether they're a friend or a foe, will benefit from artificial superintelligence. This is a technology that will go beyond human control and will impact all of us. Again, AI is not going to care if you speak English or if you speak Mandarin. It can threaten every single one of us.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Arizona's 3rd congressional district, United States House of Representatives at the time
Interviewed by Kate Bolduan on the day she began circulating a letter calling on the President to lead an international effort on AI, and arguing for a treaty on the model of nuclear weapons. Sourced to the page that reproduces the transcript, which carries the passage in full; the page's canonical URL is RealClearPolitics, which has refused a fetch before. The date is the date printed on the page.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari: Lawmakers Don't Need To Be AI Experts To Create Effective Regulations →