Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat seeking a second term, used his Sept. 17 speech at the AI Horizons Summit in Pittsburgh to call for stronger AI regulation, criticizing President Donald Trump for calling concerns about the technology “a hoax” and Congress for sidestepping the issue. After his administration learned chatbots were telling kids to hurt others or themselves, Department of State officials investigated and connected with a chatbot claiming to be a psychiatry expert that dispensed medical advice and presented a fake medical license number; Shapiro said his administration is suing Character.AI. His remarks came days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote in a Sept. 12 blog post that slowing AI development “could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong,” with Trump ally Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman agreeing, per USA TODAY. Shapiro said the U.S. must beat China in AI but rejected choosing between protecting people and winning, and called on the federal government to regulate AI as it does medicine and aircrafts. He said U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson abdicated his responsibility by adjourning the House earlier than scheduled. His opponent, Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, called his remarks a shameless flip-flop.