Sen. Mark Warner: Federal AI preemption ‘makes sense, but only if you’ve got strong guardrails’

Who?Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) — Vice Chair, Senate Intelligence CommitteeAsk a Pol asks:Is Anthropic’s new Mythos AI model on your radar? Has full Intelligence Committee had any classified briefing on it?Key Warner:“Preemption makes sense, but only if you’ve got strong guardrails,” Sen. Mark Warner exclusively tells Ask a Pol Politics. “But I mean, we don’t even have a federal law yet.”Find Ask a Pol on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram!Consider chipping in to support our independent journalism —Venmo, PayPal, Cash App — or just buy us a beer!Caught our ear:“You don’t even have a federal law on — perhaps I don’t know — federal law on social media,” Warner tells us.TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Mark Warner (4-29-2026)SCENE: Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo corners Sen. Mark Warner about artificial intelligence as he awaits an underground Senate tram.Matt Laslo: “How much is [Anthropic’s new] Mythos AI model on your radar?”Mark Warner: “A lot.”ML: “Have you guys had a hearing on it in Intel?”Warner shakes head.ML: “What’s your biggest fear? Like, are we ready for it?”MW: “Thank goodness there was a, you know, a company that was open. I’m not sure every AI company would have been this responsible in terms of timing of release.”ML: “Yeah?”ICYMI — Ask a Pol founder Matt Laslo’s latest AI featureMW: “For me, it raises a huge amount of questions about, you know, who can we rely on before this gets released into the wild? On a number of these issues.”ML: “And yet here on the other side of the aisle, they're still talking preemption of state laws with a federal bill?”MW: “Again, over a long-term basis, I've always said, you know, well, preemption makes sense, but only if you've got strong guardrails.”ML: “Yeah? But I mean, we don’t even have a federal law yet.”MW: “We don’t even have a federal law on privacy!”ML: “I know!”MW: “We don’t even have a federal law on social media!”Warner’s about to enter a tram car.ML: “My data privacy — Section 230 coverage — for WIRED, from like 2019 is quoted in like 30 law reviews: Harvard, Cornell, etc. — just because no one else was f*cking covering it! And they still aren’t.”About Ask a Pol: We give listeners a front row seat to Congress. Transparency matters, so come inside the Capitol with us! Politicians disappoint. Ask a Pol keeps em honest. Find us on social media:SubstackXSpotifyAppleDon’t miss our other Ask a Pol sites! Ask a Pol politics.Ask a Pol crypto. Ask a Pol drugs. Ask a Pol ai. Ask a Pol uaps. Find Ask a Pol founder @MattLaslo on social media.PSA: Student? Unemployed? Underemployed?Ping us for a free VIP subscription. No questions asked. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.askapolpolitics.com/subscribe