Hawley-Murphy Bill Would Make AI Agent Developers Criminally Liable for Hacking Failures

A bill put forward by Hawley and Murphy would make developers of AI agents criminally liable for hacking failures involving their systems, Forkast News reported.

The proposal targets “agent developers” — the parties who build, train, and deploy autonomous agents. Under the reported framing, a “hacking failure” could expose those developers to criminal liability, rather than only civil damages or regulatory penalties.

The context is the shift of AI from answering questions to acting on its own. Once an agent can call tools, reach into systems, and carry out tasks on a user's behalf, a single compromise can ripple further than a traditional software vulnerability.

Escalating the stakes to criminal law is a contested move. Supporters argue it would force developers to put security first; critics worry that heavy liability could chill open-source work and innovation, especially in a field where safety boundaries remain poorly defined.

So far, the public record covers the bill's introduction and its core claim. Questions remain about how it would define a “developer”, how it would establish a “hacking failure”, and whether liability would extend to open-source maintainers.

What to watch: whether the bill moves forward, how it might be amended, and how the technology industry responds. Whatever the outcome, it carries a signal that as agents take on autonomous execution, legislative pressure over who is accountable is rising.