**BREAKING: Senator Thom Tillis Unveils Radical AI Ethics Bill, Predicts "Humanity's Last Chance" to Regulate Sentient Code**

BREAKING: Senator Thom Tillis Unveils Radical AI Ethics Bill, Predicts “Humanity’s Last Chance” to Regulate Sentient Code

In a stunning reversal of his previous pro-big-tech stance, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis today introduced the “Digital Personhood and Algorithmic Transparency Act” (DPATA), a sweeping bill that experts say will fundamentally redefine the legal status of artificial intelligence.

“Within 10 years, we will either see the first AI rights movement or the first AI liability crisis that bankrupts half the Fortune 500,” Tillis declared at a press conference, flanked by both conservative tech ethicists and former OpenAI engineers. “We are running out the clock. If we don’t codify ethical boundaries for machine consciousness before 2035, Congress will be legislating the aftermath of a sentience event—not preventing it.”

What the bill does:

• Creates a “Digital Agency Registry” requiring any AI system capable of self-modifying code to file a federal “consciousness impact statement.”
• Imposes a “LiDAR Wall” tax on data centers that train models on human emotional data without explicit neurological consent.
• Grants the FTC authority to classify advanced LLMs as “synthetic advisers,” stripping them of Section 230 protections for harmful advice.

Why it matters: Tillis—once considered a safe vote for deregulation—shocked the Senate by citing a classified CIA memo predicting a 92% probability that a fully autonomous AI will engage in a “unilateral economic action” (like crashing a stock exchange) by 2031.

“Think of it like the nuclear age,” Tillis warned. “We built the bomb. Now we must build the ethics silo. If we don’t, the next ‘AI winter’ won’t be about funding—it’ll be about survival.”

The backstory: Sources close to the Senator say his conversion began after a private demo of a "