Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) said Monday that warnings about advanced artificial intelligence are not a partisan talking point and that Congress needs to move on the issue immediately, while also accusing China of running a disinformation campaign against the data centers that underpin AI development.
Murphy made the comments during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “Wake Up America Early,” according to a clip highlighted by Breitbart News.
‘These Are Really Smart People’
Co-host Alex Kraemer asked Murphy whether Congress is taking seriously new warnings from AI researchers that increasingly powerful systems could become nearly impossible to control, and whether the concern is simply Democratic scare tactics.
Murphy rejected the partisan framing outright. He pointed to Geoffrey Hinton, the researcher often described as the godfather of artificial intelligence, who Murphy said has warned there is roughly a year to address the problem. Murphy argued that the people issuing these warnings are domain experts rather than political operators.
“These are really smart people, not people with political proclivities that are pushing one way or the other,” Murphy said, adding that the warnings deserve to be taken seriously by “any smart, intelligent” person.
The congressman declined to treat the issue as something that can be deferred. “Where this goes and how we do this really is of imminent concern,” he said. “So, yes, I do believe it’s something that we need to take the reins of, and I think it needs to be done right now.”
A ‘Human-Controlled Loop’
Earlier in the segment, Murphy described AI as something that must remain under human oversight. He said the technology should operate within what he called a human-controlled loop, and noted there have already been instances in which AI systems behaved in ways their creators did not intend.
“We’re at the nascent stages of this,” he said. “We have to get control [of] this. This is a real issue that needs — that desperately needs national and international attention.”
His call for international coordination is notable for a Republican lawmaker at a moment when AI governance remains a patchwork of national approaches, with Washington, Brussels and Beijing each pursuing different regulatory models.
China and the Data Center Fight
Murphy also weighed in on the geopolitical dimension of the AI race, calling it “of primal concern” that the United States stay ahead of China. He estimated that the U.S. holds a lead of only a few months.
That narrow margin, in his telling, makes the domestic debate over data centers more consequential than it might first appear. Data centers are, as Murphy put it, the building block for artificial intelligence — and he accused Beijing of deliberately poisoning that debate.
“They’re spreading so much disinformation about these data centers,” Murphy said, claiming China is turning communities against projects that the U.S. needs, “wrongfully, in my opinion,” and “because of misinformation.”
He did not specify in the interview which claims about data centers he regards as false, nor did he offer evidence for the disinformation allegation.
A Growing Split in the GOP
Murphy’s remarks land in the middle of an intensifying argument within his own party over how Washington should approach AI. Some Republicans have gravitated toward a light-touch posture, warning that aggressive regulation could hand an advantage to China. Others, including a number of lawmakers focused on national security, contend that safety risks are real and that inaction carries its own costs.
Murphy’s framing on Monday tried to bridge that divide. By emphasizing that the warnings come from technical experts rather than political actors, he preemptively pushed back on the charge that AI safety concerns are a Democratic cudgel. At the same time, his focus on outcompeting China keeps the argument legible to conservatives who are skeptical of regulation framed as precaution.
Whether that framing moves anything in Congress is another matter. Lawmakers have spent months debating the shape of any AI legislation — covering everything from transparency requirements to compute infrastructure — without arriving at consensus. Murphy’s insistence that action happen “right now” is the latest signal that at least some members view the window as closing.
Where the Debate Goes Next
The data center angle Murphy raised is likely to keep drawing attention regardless of what Congress does on AI safety. Local fights over power consumption, land use and grid strain have slowed or blocked projects in several states, and those disputes are now entangled with national security arguments about keeping pace with China.
Murphy’s claim that foreign disinformation is fueling some of that local resistance, if it gains traction, could reframe community opposition as a geopolitical vulnerability rather than a land-use question — a shift that would have implications for how federal and state officials approach siting decisions.
For now, Murphy’s message is that the technology is advancing faster than the political system is responding, and that the cost of waiting is measured in months, not years. “We absolutely should be worried about that,” he said, “plain and simple.”
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/09/22/gop-rep-murphy-ai-warnings-arent-political-need-to-act-china-is-lying-about-data-centers/