Sanders and Casar introduce a bill to ban "superintelligent" AI outright

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act on September 23, legislation that would permanently prohibit development or deployment of AI systems judged to surpass human intelligence broadly, be capable of circumventing shutdown commands, or pose a risk of overthrowing a government. Short of that permanent ban, the bill would temporarily pause advanced AI development until a new federal regulator establishes safety rules and a model-review process.

A new cabinet-level agency, and the penalties behind it

The bill creates a cabinet-level federal agency tasked with monitoring frontier AI systems for dangerous capabilities, overseeing the removal of hazardous functions, and enforcing the superintelligence ban, backed by an advisory board of AI experts. Violations carry what the bill's authors call a "corporate death penalty" for companies and up to 20 years in prison for individuals -- a penalty Sanders compared directly to unlawfully building nuclear weapons. The bill also directs the US to pursue international agreements and export controls aimed at preventing superintelligence development globally, not just domestically.

Long odds, but a marker in the debate

"Cutting-edge AI technology is less regulated than the average food truck. That must change," Casar said in the announcement; Sanders added that "it is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced." As a bill from a progressive senator and a member of the minority party in the House, it faces a steep path to passage in this Congress. What it does accomplish is putting an outright-ban position, rather than a disclosure or liability framework, formally on the legislative record -- a marker other AI-safety proposals this year (state-level executive orders on procurement and kill switches among them) have stopped well short of.