Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear laid out a seemingly contradictory position on government regulation during two national television interviews Monday, calling for strong federal oversight of artificial intelligence while arguing against government involvement in barring biological men from women’s sports.
Appearing on MS NOW’s “All In,” the Democratic governor said sports should be fair but warned against government overreach into athletics. “I think that sports need to be fair, but the idea that government should take over sports is going to ruin sports, just think about everything else that the government tries to regulate in different parts of our lives,” Beshear said. “But, to me, you don’t throw anybody under the bus.”
Beshear connected the issue to a bill he vetoed in Kentucky, saying it “would have removed every decision that parents can make about their child’s care from them.”
Later that day on ABC’s “The View,” Beshear took a different stance on regulation when discussing artificial intelligence, criticizing the federal government’s approach to the technology. “I don’t think the president is doing anything on AI, and that’s the challenge,” he said. “I don’t think a new Space Force is going to solve this issue. And so, we need serious solutions.”
Beshear said industry leaders themselves are calling for guardrails. “Even the CEOs of most AI companies are coming forward, saying, we need oversight,” he said. “So, we need strong federal oversight to try to maximize the good that could come.”
He pointed to potential benefits and risks of the technology, saying AI combined with CRISPR gene-editing “could solve every genetic disease that we know of in our lifetime,” but also warned it “could also cause huge job displacement” and “create national security concerns.”
Beshear also called for diplomatic engagement with China on the issue, drawing a comparison to Cold War-era arms negotiations. “Go back to the Cold War and how much the U.S. and the Soviet Union disliked each other, but they were able to come together and to negotiate treaties on nuclear weapons,” he said. “Surely, we can have this conversation with China and do the same.”
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