Sen. Cory Booker: "Call Congress Back... We Need To Do Someting Bold" About AI
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/09/20/sen_cory_booker_call_congress_back_we_need_to_do_someting_bold_about_ai.html

Sen. Cory Booker sidestepped a question about an outright "pause" in the development of artificial intelligence during an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," but signalled that he has been warning about the possible dangers for years.

KRISTEN WELKER: You've called on President Trump to summon Congress back to deal with this issue. It comes as Senator Bernie Sanders, some of your other colleagues on the left, actually want to pause advanced AI development and halt new AI data centers. Would you support an outright pause on AI development right now?

SEN. CORY BOOKER: Let's be clear. Artificial intelligence without human wisdom, discernment and judgment is going to be catastrophic.

We have three problems right now. One is making sure the cataclysmic predictions don't become real. Two, stopping the harms right now. We're seeing chatbots hurting our children, scams hurting seniors, surveillance driving up prices. The third thing is capturing the benefits of AI for the American people, not just making a handful of people billionaires and even trillionaires. There's so much upside for humanity.

So what we need to do right now is have common sense. Yes, if the ability to control AI is outpaced by the threats, we should do things to slow it down. That's common sense.

Three years ago, I was writing to the then-president saying we need to do common-sense steps like having fierce, independent evaluations of AI, rigorous testing of the models pre-deployment, and safeguards. We haven't seen that yet, and the consequences of that lack of action is making this all the more threatening.

Call Congress back in. This is a time we need to do something bold and common sense when it comes to AI.