"No human at the helm": Delaware plan would let AI agents run entire businesses

A Delaware proposal to let companies be operated by AI agents would help the firms’ human owners evade legal responsibility for reckless and harmful actions taken by the AI, US Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told Delaware Governor Matt Meyer in a letter yesterday.

Comer, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told Meyer that the committee “seeks assistance obtaining documents related to your state administration’s efforts to establish a new form of corporate entity to be known as an Artificial Intelligence Company (AIC).”

Comer said the proposal is ripe for abuse. “We are concerned that Delaware’s AIC proposal could be used to protect powerful AI companies and their investors from responsibility for reckless harmful actions, while also protecting non-transparent forces seeking anticompetitive regulatory capture behind state AI initiatives,” Comer’s letter said.

Comer suggested he may propose a federal law that would limit states’ regulatory authority. He said the committee’s probe of Delaware’s plan would “inform possible federal legislative efforts including proposals to appropriately limit state AI regulatory initiatives.” Citing the Oversight Committee’s “jurisdiction to study intergovernmental relationships including those of states,” Comer asked for documents related to development of the proposal and potential AI safety risks.

AI-run companies could operate in just about any industry except banking. “An AIC may have any lawful purpose, regardless of whether for profit, except for the business of banking,” according to a draft bill that may be submitted to the Delaware state legislature.

The draft bill says AI agents could be “designated to manage the business and affairs, and to conduct the business, of the AIC.” The bill proposes a “regulatory sandbox” that would exist for 30 months to test the idea. Allowing AI-run companies would bring more revenue via taxes and fees to Delaware, which is already a top destination for business entities of all sizes.