Kelly Outlines His Vision For AI Regulation
The Senator said he wants to prevent a repeat of Congress’s failures on social media oversight.
WASHINGTON, March 11, 2026 – As Artificial Intelligence burrows deeper into the everyday life of millions of Americans, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., wants to make sure Congress plays a role in how this technology will shape the future.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday, Kelly highlighted his “AI For America” white paper released last September, which he hopes will be the starting point for AI regulation in the Senate.
“The idea is to make this [technology] worker-centric, we have to focus on people,” Kelly said. “There are estimates that by 2030 or maybe a couple of years after that we could wind up with 12 million unemployed people and unemployment is already going up for young, younger folks.”
Kelly noted that while some CEOs have said they want to use AI tools to support workers and prevent job loss, inevitably disruptions are going to happen as a result of this technology. He thinks that it's too soon to know for sure what the effects will be on work, but wants to make sure the Congress gets involved now and doesn’t feel the same regret it feels on social media.
Energy and data centers
Communities have pushed back on data center development in Arizona due to concerns of high energy usage and water consumption, Kelly said.
The Senator believes that so far, tech companies have come into communities too late, into areas where resources are constrained, asking to utilize the energy equivalent of 50,000 homes.
“That doesn’t go over very well in the desert,” Kelly said.
Kelly spoke at length about the “AI Horizon Fund”, a key proposal which would pool funds from data centers companies to pay for electrical infrastructure improvements and increased capacity.
Infrastructure upgrades, Kelly says, are a major reason for cost increases in Arizona, and he wants to ensure that rate payers aren’t taking the brunt of these increased costs as data centers come online in the state and across the country.
“If we can get this legislation passed...we can be part of the solution here to building the grid, so costs don't go up for homeowners,” Kelly said.
Kelly was previously critical of President Donald Trump’s “Rate Payer Protection Pledge”, a presidential proclamation that the major tech companies signed onto, to prevent energy rake hikes for consumers by requiring companies to supply their own power to data centers.
Kelly noted in a post on X that the agreement was the equivalent of a “handshake deal” that wasn’t going to be good enough to protect ratepayers.
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