Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd is the first of the Republican presidential candidates to present a detailed plan for regulating artificial intelligence.

Hurd's plan for "harnessing artificial intelligence," released on Wednesday, is the first presented by any of the presidential candidates. Hurd was a board member at OpenAI, a leading AI company, and was involved as a Texas representative in Congress's early efforts to understand the technology.

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Hurd wrote that "powerful AI models should need to obtain a permit" and compared the technology to nuclear power plants. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also called for such a licensing system.

Hurd called for Republicans to "take advantage of technology before it takes advantage of us." This includes "strict regulations" of the technology's exports, deploying the technology along "every mile of our border," providing compensation when somebody's work is used to train AI, and teaching middle schoolers how to code.

Hurd established himself as a tech expert during his term in Congress, in which he hosted the first hearing on AI and created one of the first plans for approaching the technology.

While AI is expected to play a role in the 2024 elections, most candidates have avoided discussing the technology and how to regulate it.

Congress has fixated on the technology in the last four to five months. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) hosted an AI Insight Forum last week that featured leading tech executives, such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

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Schumer said at the forum that he hoped to pass AI-related legislation by the end of the year but expected bills focusing on AI-powered election misinformation to take priority.

While Hurd is the most vocal candidate on AI, he has failed to qualify for the Republican primary debates and has not received an average of 1% in any of the polls.