This year's Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference, which wraps Sunday, has taken on a different feel than its usual college homecoming vibe. The event, which has drawn thousands of attendees to Washington, took on a more serious tone with briefings and conversations focused on artificial intelligence opportunities and regulation amid escalating concern about threats posed by the technology.
"I stand 100%, and so does the CBC on regulation," CBC Vice Chair Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., told CNBC. "I think we need guardrails, I think we need transparency, I think we need to prepare and protect the community from the potential ills that come with it."
Carter said at least 60 of the 62 members of the CBC would vote for a bill to regulate artificial intelligence, creating guardrails and placing guidelines on human safety. He added that competition with China should not be a factor in any legislation.
"I'm not going to run and race with China, they're not doing it the right way. They are not protecting communities," he said. "Our race should be enhanced innovation, advanced technology, while we simultaneously protect the rights of the American people."
The CBC is an influential group whose members include 29% of Democrats in the U.S. House. As Democrats aim to take control of the House in November's midterm election, the caucus's standing could rise.
The CBC's tackling of AI came amid the backdrop of Open AI becoming the latest company to report an incident where AI agents conducted what they call 'concerning model behavior,' It's one of a growing number of so called 'jailbreaks,' the slang term for when models bypass guidelines and perform unauthorized actions.
"The message they wanted me to bring is how we can do this in a way that protects our communities but do not put us in a position to lose in a national security race," said X. Eyee, an AI expert and Army veteran, who spoke with CBC members about striking a balance between putting boundaries on the technology without inhibiting innovation. "To do that, it does require addressing some of these areas where algorithms are being used with little boundaries around them."
Carter said he is talking with voters about how important the upcoming midterm elections are for AI regulation. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., this month asked that the House stay in session to find a way to legislate AI safeguards. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after President Donald Trump called AI-safety concerns a "hoax," countered that "It's time for our members to go home to their districts and make their case to the American people."
"They're not bringing it to the floor because I'm not sure that they want the regulation that we want," Carter said of Republican House leadership. "I've heard them say pump the breaks. I've heard them say let's let innovation handle it on its own, but we can't afford to do that."
With AI skepticism high in the caucus, the AI and tech industries also showed up for the CBC's Washington gathering.
Meta President and Vice Chair Dina Powell McCormick touted the economic benefits of data centers and the AI buildout they power. Meta is building the Hyperion data center project in Louisiana, and its hyperscaler rivals, including Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft, are all also in the data center expansion race.
"Technology and AI are the economic revolution of our generation," Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., a former CBC chair who now leads its technology committee, told CNBC. "That means that as Black Americans, we cannot allow this innovation to pass us by."
Horsford spoke about the importance of helping shape the energy-intensive AI buildout on a panel with Exelon CEO Calvin Butler.
Exelon provides power and grid services for the Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington areas, and Butler said he is having continuing conversations with lawmakers about the potential impact on energy prices and residents' quality of life.
"AI is a real conversation because people are trying to figure out where they fit in and can have a voice," Butler told CNBC. "What they are saying is we can't sit on the sidelines and let our constituents be impacted, and you as energy companies have a role in helping us solve this problem."
Data centers, the CBC and redistricting
The debate over AI regulation and data centers took on greater urgency because congressional redistricting could affect CBC members. The Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais will make creating "minority-majority" districts difficult and have major ramifications for the 2028 election and 2030 census, according to the Harvard Kennedy School.
CBC Chair Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., estimated earlier this year that as many as 19 seats held by CBC members are at risk due to redistricting.
Carter said that while that number is lower now after court challenges to redistricting plans, the impact on the Black community remains.
"This is not just about congressmen," he said. "This is about school boards. This is about legislative seats."
Horsford echoed concerns about threats to minority representation in Congress.
"This has never been about protecting any one district, and it is absolutely not about protecting one party or another," he said. "It's about protecting the voters' right to pick their representatives, and not the representatives being able to pick which voters they serve. And as long as we keep that at the center of the work, then we're honoring what our democracy is supposed to be about."
