During a Thursday Newsmax TV interview on The Record, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky indicated growing reluctance to grant artificial intelligence companies immunity from lawsuits of the sort some internet platforms already enjoy.

As a physician he dislikes excessive litigation yet sees lawsuits as able to deter bad practices, as Robert Kennedy did by suing Hudson River dumpers and helping restore the waterway. Paul maintains defamation should not receive protection even now, having faced utterly false claims he took money from Venezuela or Maduro, and he regards hosting such content as deserving of consequences.

He will review any proposed expansion of these shields carefully without eagerness to pass it.