Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Artificial Intelligence

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor highlighting his recent meetings with AI experts and the White House meeting today with the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic to discuss risks. Senator Schumer stressed the importance of mitigating risks as the technology advances through bipartisan legislation. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today, the White House will hold a meeting with CEOs of four top AI developers. 

It is an incredibly important engagement. Over the past several weeks, my staff and I have met with close to 100 CEOs, academics, and more and I plan to continue to do this.  I have also met with Republicans on this important policy topic. I welcome the White House’s engagement here and I expect there will be more to come soon.

As I have said before, AI is one of the most pressing and serious policy issues we confront today. That is why we are meeting with so many experts to try and get this right – to maximize the benefits of AI but minimize the harm that AI might do. And before you put forward anything, you have to really know the issue because it is a deep and difficult issue to deal with and that is why we are meeting with so many experts right now. 

It is critical that as we grapple with artificial intelligence, we should seek to invest in American ingenuity; solidify American innovation and leadership; enhance our national security; ensure it’s done in a responsible and transparent manner. 

And I want to underscore that anything we do regarding AI must be thoroughly bipartisan. That is why I am talking to a good number of my Republican colleagues here in the Senate. And we got to be clear eyed about the pros and cons of this technology. This is not an ideological issue but it is a very important issue and I hope both parties will come together on it.

###