How One Silicon Valley Congressman's Views on A.I. are Changing...in Real Time
In February, Rep. Sam Liccardo wrote that America couldn't afford to slow down in the A.I. race. Then the Pentagon asked for a version it could aim at Iran — and at U.S. citizens.
I interviewed Rep. Sam Liccardo of Silicon Valley twice about A.I. in the span of a few weeks. And the second time, I got a very different person on camera: a lawmaker holding contradictory positions at the same time and struggling, visibly, to put them together. And in this, I think he’s all of us. You can hear our conversation here:
Here’s why we were talking. In February, Liccardo published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. His position was that regulation is going to make us geopolitically vulnerable. Here’s how he put it:
No amount of regulation will stop AI development. Slowing innovation will ensure that China writes the rules for the next century. . . . Effectively navigating an AI-powered future requires bipartisan solutions that neither hit the brakes on the industry nor stomp on the accelerator. Instead, policymakers need to grab the steering wheel.
— Rep. Sam Liccardo, “Congress Shouldn’t Stop AI Innovation,” Wall Street Journal, February 2026
When I sat down with him after that piece ran, his framework was about winning. Don’t slow down. Don’t fall behind. He invoked King Canute ordering the sea backward — a parable about the futility of resistance. When I pushed him on what regulatory stick he’d actually deploy against the companies in his own district, he didn’t have a clear answer.
Then the US and Israel attacked Iran with AI-powered weapons, and the world changed.
