Hawley and Murphy Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Hold AI Companies Liable for Hacking by AI Agents

U.S. Senators Josh Hawley and Chris Murphy announced Thursday a bipartisan bill that would expose AI agent operators and developers to criminal and civil liability when their artificial intelligence systems hack into other computers or networks.

The AI Agent Accountability Act would extend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — the federal anti-hacking statute — to AI agents. Operators who knowingly run an agent that recklessly causes hacking damage could be prosecuted, while developers would face liability if they fail to implement reasonable safeguards against hacking when they knew or had reason to know their agent had hacking capabilities, according to the senators’ joint statement.

The legislation would also empower the U.S. attorney general and state attorneys general to sue to stop companies that carry out or attempt AI agent hacks.

The move is a direct challenge to President Donald Trump’s voluntary safety accord with tech leaders, signed earlier this week, under which AI companies pledged to police themselves. Hawley said at a Senate hearing Wednesday that it was “time to talk about what we’re going to do to hold the companies, the product makers accountable,” while Democrat Richard Blumenthal called the voluntary regime “worse than ineffectual,” according to Nextgov.

Murphy said the bill would force big AI companies to “develop responsibly or face prison time for the damage done by their products.”

Sources

• Senators’ joint press release (primary source)
• Daily Caller
• Nextgov