U.S. briefing

Sanders and Casar propose ban on superintelligent AI

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar propose permanently banning superintelligent AI systems and pausing advanced AI development until a new federal regulator can be created.

Close-up portrait of Bernie Sanders wearing glasses and a dark suit.
Bernie Sanders wearing glasses, a dark suit and a patterned tie.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Greg Casar of Texas are proposing a permanent ban on superintelligent AI systems. Their proposal defines those systems by their ability to match or surpass human cognitive performance across many domains or tasks. It would also pause advanced AI development until a new federal agency can be created to regulate it.

On September 8, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon announced his resignation on X, warning that Anthropic and OpenAI were pursuing self-improving superintelligence and putting lives at risk. His post attracted 150 million views and substantial media attention.

Scott Wisor, a policy director at the Secure AI Project, called for legally binding government access to information about frontier AI companies. He said that access should cover companies’ safety plans and incidents after they occur, rather than depend on voluntary disclosure.