WASHINGTON, September 23 — Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar unveiled legislation Wednesday that would ban artificial superintelligence outright, pause development of the most advanced AI systems, and create a new federal Department of Artificial Intelligence. The bill was provided first to The Associated Press. It marks a significant proposed expansion of federal oversight over advanced AI development, introduced by two leading progressive lawmakers.
Under the proposal, artificial superintelligence is defined as a system that exceeds human cognitive ability, or one with sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the destruction or disempowerment of humanity. Such systems would be permanently prohibited.
The legislation would also temporarily pause development of the most advanced AI systems until new federal safety rules are established by the new Department of Artificial Intelligence. Once those rules are in place, advanced AI systems would need federal approval before they could be deployed. Violations could carry significant penalties, including up to 20 years in prison in some cases.
Sanders: ‘Slow it down’
In an interview with the AP, Sanders framed the question in plain terms. “It doesn’t take a genius to say, ‘slow it down,’” he said. “Do we really want to develop a super intelligence that when it becomes smarter than human beings could act independently of human control?
I don’t think we do.” The bill arrives as some of the industry’s own leaders urge Congress to impose guardrails on advancing technology. Congress has so far done little to rein in the AI industry, even as some of its most prominent leaders warn about potentially catastrophic risks.
President Donald Trump has resisted recent calls for greater government oversight, putting him at odds with tech leaders including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk. A number of current employees at AI companies and experts signed on in support of the bill, according to a statement shared with AP.
Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, a researcher in OpenAI’s Safety Systems, said in a statement supporting the bill that “superintelligence could either go extremely right or extremely wrong” and that “we shouldn’t be playing such games.” What’s changing is the political terrain. A ban on superintelligence, a federal AI department and a deployment-approval regime would together represent one of the most sweeping regulatory frameworks any government has proposed for the technology.
Whether the bill moves — and how the industry and the White House respond — is the next thing to watch.
