A U.S. Senator Introduces a Bill to Ban Superintelligent AI Outright
Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar proposed permanently prohibiting the development of AI more capable than humans across the board, and temporarily pausing advanced AI work while rules are written. It is the first bill in Congress to propose stopping rather than steering.
Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar announced legislation today called the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act. It would permanently prohibit developing or deploying artificial superintelligence — AI that exceeds human ability across essentially all cognitive work — and impose a temporary pause on advanced AI development while a regulatory framework is built. Sanders described the target as "AI oligarchs" building "machines humans cannot control."
Every previous serious proposal in Congress has been about governing the technology: disclosure requirements, safety testing, liability, rules for specific uses. This is the first to propose that a category of it simply not be built. Companion measures Sanders has floated would also halt new AI data-center construction nationwide, and reporting on the draft describes criminal penalties for violations.
It is worth being clear about the bill's prospects, which are poor. It faces an administration that has made accelerating AI a priority, an industry with enormous lobbying resources, and the practical difficulty that nobody has a workable legal definition of "superintelligence" — the thing being banned.
What makes it notable is the coalition forming around it. Sanders has been appearing alongside Steve Bannon, a figure from the opposite pole of American politics, on the argument that this technology concentrates power in a handful of unaccountable companies. That is not a left-right split. It is a different axis, and it has been forming quietly for about a year across labor unions, religious groups, and parts of both parties.
Three years ago the idea of banning a category of software would have been treated in Washington as fringe. Today it has a bill number. Whether or not it passes — and it almost certainly will not — the fact that it exists says something about where public patience is heading.