According to Fast Company, former DARPA director and Biden administration technology adviser Arati Prabhakar is sounding alarms about the political gridlock surrounding AI regulation. The conflict escalated this week when former President Donald Trump declared he would block local officials from regulating artificial intelligence, with a leaked draft executive order revealing plans to punish states that attempt controls. Meanwhile, members of Congress including Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene are pushing back against federal inaction. Prabhakar, who served under both Obama and Biden, notes that despite “quite broad bipartisan support” for basic protections like managing risks to children, the federal government hasn’t taken “even the minimal actions.” She calls the opposition to both state and federal regulation a position that “makes no sense whatsoever.”
The Dangerous Political Standoff
Here’s the thing: we’re watching a perfect storm of political dysfunction collide with one of the most consequential technologies of our time. When you have someone like Prabhakar – who literally ran the Pentagon’s mad science division at DARPA – calling this a “huge red flag,” you should probably listen. She’s seen what this technology can do, and she’s worried about what happens when nobody’s steering.
And that’s exactly where we’re headed. The Trump administration’s position is essentially “states can’t regulate because the feds should, but we’re going to block the feds from regulating too.” It’s regulatory nihilism. Meanwhile, basic protections that literally everyone agrees on – like keeping AI from harming kids – are going nowhere. How does that make any sense?
The Authoritarian Moment Prabhakar Fears
Prabhakar’s warning about an “authoritarian moment” isn’t just academic speculation. We’re already seeing how AI can be weaponized for surveillance, disinformation, and social control. The technology is advancing faster than our ability to understand its implications, let alone regulate it properly. When you combine that with political leaders who actively oppose any oversight, you’ve got a recipe for exactly what she’s warning about.
Basically, we’re stuck between two bad outcomes: either we get no regulation at all, creating a wild west where the most powerful players write the rules, or we get a patchwork of conflicting state regulations that create chaos for innovation. The solution – coherent federal standards – is being blocked at every turn. So what happens next? Either this gridlock breaks, or we sleepwalk into exactly the future Prabhakar is trying to warn us about.
