Senators push narrow AI antitrust carve-out into defense spending bill

In the latest negotiations on the annual defense policy bill, senators succeeded in embedding a narrowly scoped antitrust exemption for artificial-intelligence firms. The amendment, part of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s manager’s package, would let AI companies share intelligence and coordinate responses to threats such as Chinese espionage and model-distillation without facing antitrust liability. The proposal was introduced by Jim Banks and Adam Schiff and received backing from committee leaders Roger Wicker and Jack Reed.

Senate Democrats blocked further debate on the legislation over disagreements with President Donald Trump’s approach to the Iran war, leaving the exemption pending House consideration. The exemption echoes the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act but is tailored to emerging AI safety risks, a topic also championed by Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, though his broader “pacing” carve-out faces criticism from the Trump administration and bipartisan lawmakers. Industry voices such as OpenAI’s Chris Lehane and Google’s John Connell have voiced support for the narrower, threat-focused exemption.