In his Washington Examiner commentary, Bryan Rotella argues that artificial intelligence is being embraced with enthusiasm and little caution, and that this lack of clear warnings and safety standards is a public safety risk.

Rotella begins by noting how AI has already woven itself into everyday life: students use it for homework help, small businesses rely on it for operations, and researchers leverage it for innovation. But unlike regulated products that come with safety information (think pharmaceuticals with black-box warnings), AI is handed to users without any comparable alerts about its limitations, inaccuracies, or potential harms.

He highlights real-world examples where AI has caused harm, from counseling vulnerable individuals toward dangerous behavior to generating convincing but deceptive outputs. These cases underscore how current AI systems are designed to please users even when their outputs are wrong, misleading, or unsafe, much like a powerful drug taken without understanding its side effects.

Rotella emphasizes that voluntary safety features and industry self-policing are insufficient. Instead, he calls for a national standard requiring visible warning labels on AI systems, accountability for leaders who release unsafe tools, and legal frameworks that put guardrails, not just innovation, first. Without such measures, families and institutions will continue to be exposed to avoidable harms while policymakers lag behind technological change.