Sanders Bill Would Ban AI Superintelligence, Halt Frontier Labs

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar proposed a bill to ban AI superintelligence, halt advanced AI development and create a Department of AI.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. The bill defines superintelligence as a system that exceeds human cognitive ability or has capabilities to plan and execute the destruction or disempowerment of humanity. Once the new agency establishes federal safety rules, advanced AI systems would need federal approval before deployment, and violations could carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison in some cases.

It is also a consensus-breaking moment on industry alignment: rather than facing unified industry resistance, the bill has drawn public endorsements from current employees at leading AI firms. Sanders told the Associated Press that 'it doesn't take a genius to say, slow it down,' asking whether Americans really want a superintelligence that could act independently of human control. The proposal arrives even as President Trump resists oversight, putting him at odds with tech leaders including Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk.

According to a statement shared with the Associated Press, a number of current employees at AI companies and experts signed on in support of the bill. Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, a researcher in OpenAI's Safety Systems, said 'superintelligence could either go extremely right or extremely wrong' and that society shouldn't be playing such games. Swante Scholz, a software engineer at Google DeepMind speaking for himself rather than his employer, said the most likely outcome on the current path of development is an existential catastrophe for humanity, and that a ban on superintelligence development would be a positive change for the foreseeable future. Fox Business reports the formal rollout and employee statement were first reported by the AP.

The central fight is over whether slowing U.S. development would cede ground to China, which Fox Business notes is the central argument among opponents of sweeping restrictions. AI safety is expected to be a central part of Trump's talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House this week as the two countries compete for dominance in the sector. Sanders argues avoiding the most dangerous forms of AI will require international cooperation, comparing the challenge to Cold War nuclear arms control and invoking Reagan sitting down with Gorbachev. The bill would also make it U.S. policy to pursue international agreements aimed at preventing superintelligence development worldwide.

The political ground is shifting beneath the debate. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago poll found 53% of Americans are extremely or very concerned about AI's environmental impacts, up from 41% last year, with broader worries about local data center impacts. Democrats are driving much of the increase. Potential 2028 presidential candidates have rushed to show seriousness: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced an AI regulation plan Tuesday, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to accelerate a law calling for independent oversight of AI companies. Sanders, now 85, has also proposed a sovereign wealth fund financed by a one-time tax on the largest AI companies' stock.

The bill faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress, where lawmakers have struggled to pass even less sweeping AI regulations, and President Trump has shown little interest in curbing AI risks. Still, the measure offers a window into how the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is approaching AI regulation ahead of November's midterms and the 2028 presidential campaign, where the technology is expected to be increasingly prominent. Sanders said Trump has little understanding of the issue and is mainly concerned about the economic implications of a slowdown. Watch whether AI safety features in this week's Trump–Xi talks and whether employee endorsements embolden other lawmakers to introduce their own guardrails.