Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is seeking a classified briefing for all senators on how the Trump administration is testing powerful artificial intelligence models, restricting technology transfers to China and preparing for AI-enabled cyberattacks.
The New York senator called for senior administration officials to explain their actions on those three fronts. His request is for a briefing; the statement announcing it did not say one had been scheduled or describe a new legislative proposal.
Schumer wants an account of the administration's framework for testing frontier AI models before deployment and of how it assesses potentially severe risks. He said the framework has not been made public, and asked officials to explain what safeguards are in place.
His second question concerns export controls. Schumer asked what the administration is doing to keep advanced AI chips, semiconductor manufacturing equipment and other critical U.S. technology from reaching China and supporting its technological and military development. The release did not announce a specific new export restriction.
The third issue is cybersecurity. Schumer asked how the government plans to defend hospitals, water systems, energy grids, schools, election systems and telecommunications networks against AI-enabled attacks. The statement identified those sectors as potential targets, not as sites of a newly reported attack.
Schumer framed the request around warnings that he said industry leaders raised about the pace and risks of advanced AI development. Those warnings and his criticism of the administration are his stated reasons for demanding the briefing; the release does not provide independent findings that a particular model caused a specific harm or defied instructions in a documented incident.
"Innovation must be coupled with serious guardrails that earn the trust of the American public," Schumer said. He argued that federal officials should answer senators' questions about safety and security and said Congress may need to act if the administration does not.
The senator previously convened nine AI insight forums in 2023 with industry, civil rights, labor and academic participants. He later joined Republicans Mike Rounds and Todd Young and Democrat Martin Heinrich in a bipartisan Senate AI working group that issued a policy roadmap for committee consideration, according to his office.
The immediate next step sought by Schumer is the all-senators briefing. His statement does not identify which administration officials would attend or give a date for it.
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