Sen. Elizabeth Warren was one of several lawmakers in June to resist the use of AI because she was skeptical of the technology's ability to provide accurate information.
But what about now?
“Oh, that's weird,” the Massachusetts Democrat said with a laugh this month, explaining that although he still suffers from occasional hallucinations, he finds ChatGPT “really valuable” for basic research questions.
Warren said that after seeing her daughter use ChatGPT, she started using it more. She said she is not “addicted” to technology, but uses it to “start approaching problems.”
“For example, I was reading something and thought to myself, how many people are there in Mississippi? And what's the breakdown between young children and people over 65?” Warren said. “Putting that into ChatGPT gives me better answers than I get directly from Google. It gives me more granular information and more ways to slice and dice the numbers.”
Other skeptics have also tiptoed into using the technology, including some of the AI industry's leading critics.
“After all these hearings on ChatGPT the other day, I decided to at least see how it works,” Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Business Insider, adding that he asked ChatGPT “very geeky historical questions” about the Puritans of the 1630s. “I can say we got a lot of good information.”
“I'm using it even though I think it's going to destroy us,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told Business Insider.
At the highest levels of the U.S. government, private AI adoption remains spotty. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt told reporters in November that she did not believe President Donald Trump himself used the technology.
“I have never witnessed that,” she said. “So we can't prove it.”
Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance declared himself a “Glock guy” in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity in November.
“I think this is the best,” Vance said of Elon Musk's AI chatbot. That's what I find most difficult to wake up to.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson said he has never used AI, saying on Katie Miller's podcast that he just didn't have the “luxury of time” to work on it.
“I'm just getting used to it yet. My life is not normal right now, okay?” Johnson said. “And AI really has been. It's become really popular over the past two years during my tenure as a speaker, so I haven't had the time to get involved.”
As lawmakers increasingly work with AI, some are having strange experiences. California Democratic Congressman Jared Huffman told Business Insider that at one point he tried to use Microsoft Copilot to find out what was engraved on Charlie Kirk's murder suspect's bullet casing.
Instead, Huffman said they ended up in an argument and the co-pilot insisted Kirk was still alive, even though the deputy urged the AI to provide information to the contrary.
“They continued to fight me and claim that the whole assassination was a conspiracy theory,” Huffman said. “It was very strange.”
Most lawmakers interviewed by Business Insider said they use ChatGPT.
But at least one person, Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, said he preferred using Anthropic's Claude because of the company's focus on AI safety and ethics.
“I was very impressed by the fact that they actually put together their own constitution regarding ethical use,” Bayer said. “They seem more enlightened, at least.”
