California Republican Jay Obernolte spoke Monday on the Fox News Channel program America’s Newsroom. He said product liability already applies to artificial intelligence but leaves unknown which party must pay after harm. He named deployers, modifiers, original developers and training-data suppliers as the uncertain candidates and said Congress should decide.

He placed that decision after a more urgent step. Companies need a legal duty to write and then follow plans that keep their systems safe, something he said does not exist today.