ICYMI: Murphy in TIME Magazine’s TIME100 AI: AI Companies are “In A Race To Deploy Consumer-Facing, Job-Killing AGI”

TIME100 AI 2025: Chris Murphy, US Senator, Connecticut

By Billy Perrigo

August 28, 2025

In a blistering essay published in June, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut accused leading AI companies of perpetuating a "fraud" on the American people-one that could result, he wrote, in mass job loss and societal upheaval. Today's top AI companies "are in a race to deploy consumer-facing, job-killing AGI as quickly as possible, in order to beat each other to the market," he wrote. "Any talk about ethical or moral AI is just whitewash."

The crux of his argument-which emphasizes the need for greater AI regulation and oversight-ran counter to those made by the likes of OpenAI and reflected in policy by the Trump Administration, which maintain that the U.S. must tread lightly on AI regulation to stay ahead in the "AI race" against China. However, many of the concerns Murphy raised, particularly about AI-related job losses, have increasingly become part of public discourse, positioning Murphy as a rising star in the Democratic Party, and a key voice on an issue few in Congress speak out about.

With the Democrats seeking a new political platform in the wake of their 2024 defeat at the hands of Trump, Murphy-who says he has spent time meeting with executives at top AI companies, including OpenAI's Sam Altman-spots a political opening in widespread worker anxiety over AI. "I think it'll be good politics for whichever party takes more seriously the threat to jobs posed by unchecked artificial intelligence," Murphy tells TIME. "This is an opportunity that we can seize, but it requires our party to make a choice."