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

Ep. 121 — Sen. Mark Warner (4-29-2026)
Male politician in dark suit rides underground tram
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner rides an underground tram in the US Capitol. Photo: Matt Laslo

Who?

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) — Vice Chair, Senate Intelligence Committee

LISTEN: Laslo & Warner

0:00
-1:01

Ask a Pol asks:

How much is Anthropic’s new Mythos AI model on your radar? Has full Intelligence Committee had any classified briefing on it?

Key Warner:

“A lot,” Sen. Mark Warner exclusively tells Ask a Pol Politics.

Have you guys had a briefing on it in the Senate Intel Committee?

Warner shakes head.

What’s your biggest fear? Like, are we ready for it?

“Thank goodness there was a company that was open,” Warner says. “I’m not sure every AI company would have been this responsible in terms of timing of release.”

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Caught our ear:

“We don’t even have a federal law on privacy,” Warner tells us. “We don’t even have a federal law on social media.”

“I know!” Ask a Pol founder — and longtime WIRED magazine technology correspondent — Matt Laslo replies. “My data privacySection 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.”

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Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), slightly edited for clarity.

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 feature

Screenshot of Ask a Pol founder Matt Laslo's AI feature for Raw Story
Screenshot of Ask a Pol founder Matt Laslo’s artificial intelligence feature for his wire service client, Raw Story.

MW: “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 privacySection 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.”

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