On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) stated that while there need to be strong AI regulations, some, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have suggested that we should just “kind of make it go away, throw it in a box, and chuck it into the Hudson River and hope that you never have to see it again. That’s obviously not practical.”

Gottheimer said, “We need very strong mandatory guardrails in place for a review of these models, right? Before they go out in the wild, the major labs, the ones on the most cutting edge, have to come, I believe, and go to the government and get a national security review to protect our critical infrastructure, to protect Americans, to make sure that our cybersecurity is safe. And I believe that can’t be something that’s done on their own. They can’t self-police. The government should have mandatory requirements for that.”

He continued, “I also think AI is here, right? So, the question is, how do we deal with it in a way that allows us to compete and win, but to do it in a smart, safe way, right? And some people have suggested, like Bernie Sanders and others, that you just kind of make it go away, throw it in a box, and chuck it into the Hudson River and hope that you never have to see it again. That’s obviously not practical. It’s here. And the other side is saying, hey, the government shouldn’t be involved in this, let us handle this ourselves. That’s also ridiculous, right? There is a way to do this. And that’s what we’ve been very focused on on the AI commission and what I’ve been focused on over the last years, is how do we find a smart way to do this, with strong guardrails that [protect] people and [protect] our security.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett