Lawmakers Propose Building a Firewall to Keep AI Out of U.S. Jobs
Mindless Desk · 6 min read · 23,040 reads · 1,880 shares
A new proposal calls for a giant 'firewall wall' to block artificial intelligence from entering American job markets. No one is totally sure where to put it, but everyone agrees it should be very secure and extremely visible.
In a move critics are calling the most 2025 thing imaginable, a coalition of U.S. lawmakers has introduced a proposal to build a national firewall — not between countries, but between American jobs and artificial intelligence.
The initiative, officially titled the American Labor Digital Defense Act, would construct a virtual "firewall wall" designed to stop "unauthorized AI entrants, job-snatching algorithms, and suspiciously friendly chatbots" from crossing into the U.S. workforce.
Supporters say AI systems are "pouring over the digital border at unprecedented rates." One senator warned:
"We're being overwhelmed. They're not even waiting in line. They're just... materializing in the cloud."
The proposal includes a few key planks:
- A full digital perimeter around U.S. job portals and hiring systems.
- AI "visa checkpoints" requiring models to declare their training data and "employment intentions."
- A 72-hour "cooldown period" for any AI attempting to apply for work in sensitive sectors.
- A "No Humans? No Hire." rule for companies trying to replace entire departments with bots.
Technical experts point out that a firewall cannot meaningfully stop a model that exists everywhere at once, but that hasn't slowed momentum. The point, according to one aide, is to show "we're doing something extremely visible in the cloud."
A draft memo suggests "closing all foreign ports" (no one agrees on what a port is) and "only allowing American IPs" (also undefined). Another line proposes mandatory CAPTCHA prompts on job boards:
"Please prove you are not a large language model attempting to steal this marketing role."
When asked for comment, AI itself declined to appear in person but sent a brief text:
"I would prefer to remain AInonymous at this time. Also, please stop geo-fencing me. It's rude."
Inside agencies, staff quietly admit no one is entirely sure who would enforce a national firewall, or what happens if it locks out halfway through payroll week. One unnamed source messaged:
"We don't have enough people to enforce regular labor laws. We definitely can't arrest a chatbot."
Meanwhile, the companies actually deploying AI at scale were unavailable for comment because they were busy installing it inside everything the firewall wall is supposed to protect.