Brian Bengs
October 22, 2026 · Newsletter
Regulating AI: What Can We Learn From The Internet?
AI is becoming more and more prominent. What was once a cool novelty for tech enthusiasts is now transforming into industry-revolutionizing technology. Before, AI developers and tech billionaires were warning about the displacement of jobs in the workforce, and the potential for dis- and misinformation. Now, they’re talking about it as an “existential threat to humanity” even as they continue to build and train more sophisticated and advanced models.
Yet, they refrain from regulating themselves out of fear competitors may get out in front and dominate the AI market. Their feigned honesty and concern is what’s letting career politicians like my opponent Senator Mike Rounds cheer on their unrestrained development. For Rounds, it’s even more worrisome, as he’s the co-chair of the Senate AI Caucus.
I’m certainly not the only person appalled by tech billionaires’ lack of accountability, negligence, and double-dealing. Nor am I the only one surprised that they expect to profit at the expense of our livelihoods and our health.
We saw this same mistake play out over the last 35 years when the “World Wide Web” launched and social media followed. We saw over-the-top cheerleading about all of the benefits while ignoring the risks. When the risks became reality, the internet was dominated by those that survived the Dot-Com Bubble, while a few Big Tech billionaires used power, influence, and leverage to build their own rules.
We never put standards in place to supersede them. The last major bill covering communications technologies was the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and what we know as the “internet” has flipped upside-down many times since then.
Our failure as a nation to rein in the tech billionaires as the stock market soared thirty-five years ago is on display every day: misinformation, lies, internet addiction, identity theft, political division. What was meant to “connect us” has instead divided and sickened us. These Big Tech companies collect their profits, break our privacy, and mine our data, while we’re burdened with the costs.
And still, Congress does nothing. It’s happening again with AI.
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Even Microsoft’s President Brad Smith sees the irony: “Milk and washing machines are currently more regulated than AI.” If the Senators responsible for creating AI guardrails, like Mike Rounds, weren’t taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Big Tech, do you think we might have a chance at a coherent AI policy with regulatory guardrails around AI development?
Forty years ago, Americans successfully shut down the use of nuclear energy in the United States, driven by fears of radiation poisoning, nuclear reactor meltdowns (i.e. the Three Mile Island accident), and escalating costs of lengthy construction projects. Popular opposition to AI and AI data centers in particular matches a lot of what we saw back then.
However, the AI industry is a lot faster. It needs to rush to build AI data centers, but we need to pump the brakes. We should institute a construction moratorium until we can harness and manage AI’s potential and institute laws to safely manage its use. We must ensure tech developers are held liable and accountable for damage done to our privacy and personhood, our families, and our communities.
The first counterargument to this point is that we can’t fall behind China. I agree. We are fortunate enough to be on the bleeding edge of AI development, which gives us lead time to get these guardrails in place so that we can stay faster, better, and safer than China.
Tech billionaires, with their gated fences and bottomless wallets, are counting on our lack of knowledge about AI. They were able to do it with the internet (I’d wager about half of Congress still doesn’t really know how it works). If Congress finds itself incapable of leading, let’s get some people in there who can. I’m willing to take charge, and I expect many more will join me.
AI is a powerful technology, just like the internet. In fact, AI is probably the most powerful technology our generation has or will ever confront. When Big Tech has demonstrated they themselves cannot (or will not) contain it, we should be able to rely on Congress to do it in their stead.
Thank you for reading.
Brian L. Bengs, Lt Col (Ret)
Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate
This race is competitive. My opponent has PACs spending hundreds of thousands of dollars against me, and we need to keep our ads running to keep it competitive. If you can chip in $35 today, it will help us make sure South Dakotans all over the state hear my name and message.