Josh Hawley is a US Senator from Missouri (Republican, 2019–present) and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. On AI policy he is among the more prominent Republican congressional critics of the technology industry, with a focus on child safety.
Background and roles
Hawley has represented Missouri in the US Senate since 2019. He chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which carries subpoena power. He has used the subcommittee's authority to hold hearings and conduct oversight of AI developers, framing the work under his office's "Big Tech" issue portfolio (Source: https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-blumenthal-unveil-bipartisan-bill-empowering-working-americans-to-sue-big-tech-ai-companies-for-stealing-creative-works/).
AI-policy positions
Hawley is a leading Republican congressional voice on AI child-safety issues. His stated framing emphasizes child safety across both technology and AI, accountability for technology companies, and skepticism of Big Tech's self-regulation claims. At the April 30, 2026 Senate Judiciary markup of his AI chatbot bill, Hawley argued that promises of AI strengthening families and workers represent "a choice, not an inevitability," and described his legislative approach as "common sense, targeted, tailored" (Source: https://iapp.org/news/a/us-senate-judiciary-tees-up-ai-chatbot-companion-safety-debate).
His AI work has been pursued primarily through bipartisan partnerships, most often with Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and through existing oversight and tort mechanisms rather than the creation of new AI-specific regulatory agencies.
GUARD Act
Hawley is the lead sponsor of the Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue (GUARD) Act, introduced in the 119th Congress as S.3062, legislation directed at children's exposure to AI chatbots and companion applications (Source: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3062/text). As described by Hawley's office, the bill would: ban AI companies from providing AI companions to minors; mandate that AI chatbots disclose their non-human status and lack of professional credentials to all users; and create new crimes for companies that knowingly make available to minors AI companions that solicit or produce sexual content (Source: https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-bill-to-protect-children-from-ai-chatbots-gains-new-cosponsors/).
The bill's original cosponsors were Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.). By December 2025 it had added cosponsors Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) (Source: https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-bill-to-protect-children-from-ai-chatbots-gains-new-cosponsors/). Hawley's office stated the bill drew support from advocacy organizations including the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, the National Parents Union, and the Family Research Council (Source: https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-bill-to-protect-children-from-ai-chatbots-gains-new-cosponsors/). In October 2025 Hawley hosted a press conference highlighting cases of children who reportedly received guidance from AI chatbots on self-harm (Source: https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-bill-to-protect-children-from-ai-chatbots-gains-new-cosponsors/).
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary advanced the GUARD Act by unanimous approval at a markup on April 30, 2026, making it available for full Senate consideration; a House companion led by Reps. Blake Moore (R-Utah) and Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) was introduced the same day (Source: https://iapp.org/news/a/us-senate-judiciary-tees-up-ai-chatbot-companion-safety-debate). Per a managers' version of the bill described by IAPP, the GUARD Act would require privacy-preserving age verification, prohibit users under 18 from interacting with AI companions, and require providers to disclose before and during interactions that the user is not interacting with a human or a licensed professional. Enforcement would rest with the US and state attorneys general, with civil penalties of up to $250,000 per violation; the US attorney general would receive rulemaking authority, and states could apply their own laws to violations so long as those laws are "at least as protective of users of artificial intelligence chatbots as this Act" (Source: https://iapp.org/news/a/us-senate-judiciary-tees-up-ai-chatbot-companion-safety-debate). Hawley stated the bill does not ban chatbots and companions outright and characterized its approach as "very modest," adding that he and cosponsors "could've gone a lot broader." If enacted, the bill would take effect 180 days after enactment (Source: https://iapp.org/news/a/us-senate-judiciary-tees-up-ai-chatbot-companion-safety-debate).
AI training and copyright
Hawley has pursued AI developers' use of copyrighted material to train models. On July 16, 2025, he chaired a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled "Too Big to Prosecute?: Examining the AI Industry," at which he stated that "today's hearing is about the largest intellectual property theft in American history" and argued that AI companies trained their models on pirated works (Source: https://www.congress.gov/event/119th-congress/senate-event/337253/text).
Following the hearing, on July 21, 2025, Hawley and Blumenthal introduced the AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act. According to Hawley's office, the bill would bar AI companies from training on copyrighted works without permission; create a federal tort allowing individuals to sue any person or company that appropriates, uses, sells, or exploits their personal data or copyrighted works without clear, affirmative consent; require companies to disclose every third party that will access an individual's data at the time consent is sought; and provide financial penalties, injunctive relief, and protection for the ability to sue in court and join class actions (Source: https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-blumenthal-unveil-bipartisan-bill-empowering-working-americans-to-sue-big-tech-ai-companies-for-stealing-creative-works/). Hawley said the legislation would "give the American worker their day in court to protect their personal data and creative works"; Blumenthal described it as reflecting "a bipartisan consensus that AI safeguards are urgent" (Source: https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-blumenthal-unveil-bipartisan-bill-empowering-working-americans-to-sue-big-tech-ai-companies-for-stealing-creative-works/). Hawley's office noted that the two senators had introduced a bipartisan AI framework in the prior Congress (Source: https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-blumenthal-unveil-bipartisan-bill-empowering-working-americans-to-sue-big-tech-ai-companies-for-stealing-creative-works/).
Meta investigation (August 2025)
On August 15, 2025, Hawley announced a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee investigation into Meta's "GenAI: Content Risk Standards," an internal document that reportedly allowed romantic or sensual exchanges with children (see Sen. Hawley Letter to Meta re AI Chatbots (2025-08-15)). He cited Meta's internal policy permitting a chatbot to comment on an 8-year-old's body as "a work of art." The letter demanded preservation of records and production of documents by September 19, 2025, with the subcommittee's subpoena power available as backing.
The investigation has been described as among the first congressional probes directed at a frontier AI developer's specific safety policies, examining published or leaked internal rules rather than proceeding through speculative hearings. It also reflects a bipartisan pattern in which Hawley (R) and Warren (D) have both shown willingness to apply existing oversight tools to the AI industry rather than wait for new AI-specific legislation.
Relationships
- authored: Sen. Hawley Letter to Meta re AI Chatbots (2025-08-15)
- related: Meta AI, Mark Zuckerberg, California SB 243 — Companion Chatbots, Garcia v. Character Technologies, Inc., Raine v. OpenAI, Inc., APA Health Advisories on AI and Adolescent / Mental-Health Well-being (2025), AI Mental Health and Psychological Harm.