The Pentagon's chief technology officer, Emil Michael, said Wednesday that the administration will lay out the laws and regulations that apply to artificial intelligence companies in the coming weeks, before Democratic-controlled Congress takes up legislation on the technology.

Pushes AI Companies to Earn Public Trust

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's technology conference in Napa, California, Michael said the administration is "going to lay out in the next week or two all the laws and regulations that apply to these companies."

He said the push is meant to give Americans confidence that AI companies will do the right thing.

"Or else I think what you get is 535 legislators writing a piece of regulation that could kill the industry," he added.

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AI Companies Sign on to Safety Principles

AI companies have agreed to four principles for monitoring safety, Michael said, including third-party auditors and an independent board committee that can take safety complaints.

He plans to discuss how companies should report and categorize incidents.

Asked what power the Super Intelligence Force has, including whether it can pause model development or fine a company, Michael pointed to existing government rules.

He said export controls can cut off a company's foreign sales if it fails to fix a jailbreak within two hours.

"There's a lot of teeth that we have to enforce," Michael added.

Democratic Wins Raise Pressure on AI Buildout

Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives & Co. said the result will "have a negative impact on the pace of the AI Revolution buildout in the US over the next few years."

The biggest U.S. cloud companies, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Oracle, are projected to spend more than $700 billion on AI and data center infrastructure in 2026, with estimates climbing to $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion in 2027.

Nvidia, the leading supplier of chips for AI data centers, depends on that buildout for demand.

CoreWeave, which rents Nvidia-powered computing capacity to AI developers and borrows heavily to build the data centers that supply it, has seen the cost of insuring its debt hit a record high.

Elon Musk-led SpaceX has multiple gigawatts of data center capacity in the works, including projects in Texas.

Price Action: On Wednesday, SpaceX's shares closed 3.81% lower at $135.92 and fell 1.36% to $134.08 in extended trading.

Benzinga Edge rankings indicate SpaceX's stock has a negative price trend in the short, medium, and long term.

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This article Pentagon Tech Chief Warns 535 Lawmakers Writing AI Rules 'Could Kill the Industry' originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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