Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said Thursday they are off to “a great start” in establishing a legislative approach to regulating artificial intelligence, a day after hosting top tech executives for a closed-door forum at the Capitol.

Schumer said about 70 senators attended the closed-door forum on Wednesday with industry leaders and that together, they reached an early consensus that the federal government should play a role in regulating the emerging technology. The senators emphasized the task will not be easy, especially since the issues include elections, healthcare, defense, intellectual property, labor, data privacy, and more.

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“It affects just every aspect of society. It’s not just one area or another area,” Schumer said during an informal press briefing. “The normal reaction of the legislative body would probably say, ‘It’s too hard.’ ‘Let someone else do it,’ or ‘Let’s kick the can down the road.’ But we can’t afford to do that. AI is too important to leave alone.”

How exactly lawmakers intend to proceed is still unclear. Schumer acknowledged there was a discussion about whether a new regulatory agency needs to be formed to regulate the technology during the forum.

“What kind of agency should do the regulation? Should it be an existing agency? Should it be a sort of combination of existing agencies in some areas and new agency in others?” Schumer asked, indicating none of these questions is anywhere close to being answered.

Both Schumer and Rounds emphasized that they will prioritize handling legislation related to AI and elections as the 2024 presidential race approaches. Rounds said he believes the issue is of the utmost importance for members of both parties.

“We’ve got to be able to say that we can make democracy and a republic work,” Rounds said to reporters on Thursday morning. “We’re going to have to do everything we can to make sure those elections absolutely are fair and that misinformation is identified.”

“How you go about doing that, with an agreement by both sides, is going to be a real challenge. First Amendment rights are critical. But make sure that if somebody’s going to implicate or play games or make clearly illusionary messages, there’s got to be a way in this society to address it,” Rounds added.

Both senators acknowledged their approach may be piecemeal but that election interference would be among the first problems tackled.

“Look, we’d like to do everything at once, but there are some areas that will be a lot harder to get our arms around than others because of the technical knowledge or because maybe there are divisions or whatever,” Schumer said.

As lawmakers continue to gather information, it’s clear AI does not seem to bring out partisan divisions like other issues that have plagued Capitol Hill. While the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House seem to have very different agendas this session, Schumer said he believes he’ll be able to work with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to find a solution in the future.

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“I spoke to Leader McCarthy that we were doing this, and he was very encouraging,” Schumer said. “I think one of the best things we can do is set an example, if it’s truly bipartisan here, and it’s off to a very bipartisan start. It’ll help the process in the House be more bipartisan.”

The senators said they plan to hold more forums in the future and that some would be open to the press. They plan to hold a session on examining the benefits and potential pitfalls of AI but have not yet announced the date.