Swarm of the Suits As the AI industry continues to balloon, so does its army of lackeys ready to buttonhole lawmakers for favorable regulation. According to a new report by the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen, thousands of AI lobbyists have descended upon the Capitol, in a dramatic surge of influence that’s already coincided with major policy decisions. Between 2019 and 2022, the number of lobbyists sent by corporations and other groups on AI-related issues stayed relatively equal year-to-year, hovering around 1,500. Then in 2023, things went off the charts, with over 3,400 lobbyists flooding Washington DC — an increase of more than 120 percent. “We’re reaching a point where the policies that are going to shape AI policy in the next 10 years are really being decided now,” Mike Tanglis, research director at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, told The Hill. “From our perspective, having the leading voices on an issue being those that stand to make billions of dollars is generally not a good idea for the public.” Power Up Those numbers show that the AI lobby has had a sizeable presence for years. It’s only now, with the mainstream popularity of chatbots like ChatGPT and image generators like Midjourney, that people are beginning to take notice — and that the number of AI lobbyists has begun to significantly climb. One of the more brazen displays of the industry’s sway over the federal government took place last fall, when dozens of tech leaders, from Elon Musk to…The AI Industry Is Swarming DC With Lobbyists