Washington (July 21, 2023) –Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), co-chair of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, yesterday met with Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the book that inspired the Oppenheimer film. 

Following the meeting, Bird issued the following statement endorsing Senator Markey’s Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act:

“Humans must always maintain sole control over nuclear weapons – this technology is too dangerous to gamble with. As my book chronicles, humanity missed a crucial opportunity at the outset of the nuclear age to avoid a nuclear arms race that has since kept us on the brink of destruction for decades. Now, we face the prospect of a new danger: the increasing automation of warfare. We must forestall the AI arms race. That’s why I strongly endorse Senator Markey and Representative Lieu’s bipartisan bill to block the use of artificial intelligence for nuclear launch. This bill will send a powerful signal to the world that the United States will never take the reckless step of automating our nuclear command and control.”

As the Senate takes up the National Defense Authorization Act, Congress has an opportunity next week to hold a vote on an amendment based on Senator Markey’s Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act.