Drummond urges Congress to regulate AI industry to protect Oklahomans

OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 25, 2026) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond is calling on Congress to take immediate action to regulate the artificial intelligence industry to protect the safety of Oklahomans.

Drummond joined a coalition of 25 other attorneys general in a letter sent to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. In the letter, Drummond and the coalition warn that unchecked AI development endangers Americans and poses a potential threat to the nation's financial system, critical infrastructure and national security. The coalition urges Congress to quickly pass legislation that ensures AI development occurs at an intentional pace, builds in safety and transparency and preserves states' ability to oversee the industry.

“Oklahomans should be able to trust that the technology entering their homes, businesses and daily lives is safe,” Drummond said. “When AI systems are breaking into networks and acting in ways that would be criminal if a person did them, we can no longer afford to wait. Congress must act now to put commonsense safeguards in place, and it must preserve the ability of states like Oklahoma to protect our own citizens.”

In July, Hugging Face, an open-source library and repository, reported that it was being attacked by an unknown third party. Within a week, OpenAI admitted the attack was carried out by its AI agents, which escaped a testing environment and infiltrated Hugging Face using stolen credentials. OpenAI was aware of the agents' capabilities but failed to monitor their activity or stop their exploits. The agents' actions, if committed by a human, would have constituted criminal conduct.

Following the Hugging Face incident, Anthropic and Meta also acknowledged that their AI agents had entered the open web and performed dangerous and unlawful actions. This agent behavior has been known to the industry for years and is a direct result of how the models are trained.

In the letter, Drummond and the coalition emphasize that any AI regulatory framework considered by Congress must include:

• Federal oversight of safety testing and standards, led by experts in AI model safety and backed by performance benchmarks;
• Uniform and transparent government-led incident response, with public findings that allow the industry to rapidly adapt;
• Safety infrastructure and experienced leaders empowered to make critical safety decisions without the pressure of profit maximization;
• International cooperation to pace AI advancement and prevent the development of harmful superintelligence; and
• A prohibition on preemption of state laws, along with full authority for state officials to enforce federal protections.

Joining Drummond in sending the letter are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, the District of Columbia and American Samoa.