Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called for safeguards around artificial intelligence, warning that its rapid progress carries dangerous and potentially catastrophic risks while arguing that the United States must continue leading China in the technology. In a September 9, 2026, post on X, Cruz highlighted the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which he said was the only legislation Congress had enacted restricting AI to protect victims from AI-generated deepfakes (fabricated media created with AI). He also said he was working with Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) on legislation addressing catastrophic biological and nuclear threats. The debate comes as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) separately called for stronger AI oversight and faster action. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States could not pause its AI competition with China, while Elon Musk called China the strongest competitor. Chinese AI models accounted for a record 58% of tokens processed by U.S. firms on OpenRouter, compared with less than 10% at the start of 2025, briefly reaching 63% in early July as developers adopted models including DeepSeek.