Sanders Unveils Bill to Create AI Dept.09/23 06:27

   

   Washington (AP) -- Two leading progressive lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders 
and Rep. Greg Casar, are unveiling legislation Wednesday that would ban 
artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced 
https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence as some of the industry's own 
leaders urge Congress to impose guardrails on the advancing technology.

   The bill, provided first to The Associated Press, would also pause advanced 
AI development until guidelines are implemented while creating the Department 
of Artificial Intelligence. Multiple employees at leading AI companies are 
endorsing the bill.

   "It doesn't take a genius to say, 'slow it down,'" Sanders, I-Vt., said in 
an interview with AP. "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."

   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 
https://apnews.com/article/ai-trump-un-guterres-danger-killer-robots-073d9026a06
d99192009170b51bc6e37 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.

   The bill aims to dramatically slow down AI development 

   The legislation would permanently prohibit artificial superintelligence, 
which it defines as a system that exceeds human cognitive ability or has 
sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the destruction or disempowerment 
of humanity.

   It would temporarily pause development of the most advanced AI systems until 
new federal safety rules are established by a new Department of Artificial 
Intelligence. Advanced AI systems would then need federal approval before they 
could be deployed. Violations could carry significant penalties, including up 
to 20 years in prison in some cases.

   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 Cern 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."

   Swante Scholz, a software engineer at Google DeepMind who said he was not 
speaking on behalf of his employer, said on the current path of development, 
the "most likely outcome is an existential catastrophe for humanity."

   "A ban on superintelligence development would be a positive change for the 
foreseeable future," Scholz said in a statement.

   The bill faces long odds but draws a line in a growing fight 

   The bill from Sanders and Casar faces long odds in the Republican-controlled 
Congress, where lawmakers have struggled to coalesce around even less sweeping 
AI regulations.

   But it offers a window into how the progressive wing of the Democratic Party 
is approaching AI regulation ahead of November's midterms and a 2028 
presidential campaign in which the technology is expected to be an increasingly 
prominent issue. Casar, a Democrat from Texas, is the chair of the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus.

   Potential 2028 presidential candidates have rushed in recent weeks to 
release proposals showing they're taking the issue seriously. Maryland 
Democratic Gov. Wes Moore announced a plan to regulate AI on Tuesday, while 
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom 
https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/FINAL-N-9-26-AI-EO-9.18.26-SIG
NED.pdf to accelerate implementation of a California law that calls for 
independent oversight of AI companies last week.

   Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate who is now 85, has 
https://apnews.com/article/bernie-sanders-ai-public-ownership-57b9f20d96490083e2
749adba0f13977 on the issue in recent months. In June, he introduced 
legislation to create a sovereign wealth fund financed through a one-time tax 
on the stock of the largest AI companies. Last week, he hosted colleagues for a 
briefing with experts and also attended a conference focused on the issue 
alongside Republicans, including former White House adviser Steve Bannon.

   The debate over AI regulations has scrambled political alliances both in 
Washington and for voters across the country.

   Americans have grown more concerned about the 
https://apnews.com/article/ai-data-centers-environment-climate-footprint-a792f18
4a9f2833b5388dbae8b41ca95 over the last year, according to a 
https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/elections/2026/theres-one-issue-where-republi
cans-and-democrats-are-unified-before-the-midterms-a-new-poll-finds/ from 
https://apnorc.org/ and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of 
Chicago.

   The survey data say about half, 53%, of Americans are "extremely" or "very" 
concerned about artificial intelligence's environmental impacts. That is up 
from 41% last year. Democrats are driving much of the increase in environmental 
concern, but the poll also reveals broader worries about the local impact of 
data centers, which power AI and cloud computing.

   Trump has shown little interest in curbing AI risks 

   While some industry leaders have called for new safeguards, Trump has pushed 
in the opposite direction. On Tuesday, Trump told the United Nations General 
Assembly that artificial intelligence will be renamed "super intelligence."

   "I think Trump has very little understanding of what this issue is about," 
Sanders said. "I think he's mainly concerned about the economic implications of 
a slowdown."

   AI safety is expected to be a central part of 
https://apnews.com/article/china-us-trump-xi-meeting-ai-d08e58524de21511dcaba51f
43faad95 Trump and China's Xi Jinping at the White House this week as the 
countries compete for dominance in the sector. The prospect of slowing 
development in the United States while China continues on has also been one of 
the central arguments against sweeping restrictions.

   Sanders argued that avoiding the most dangerous forms of AI would ultimately 
require cooperation between the two countries, comparing the challenge to 
nuclear arms control during the Cold War.

   "Ronald Reagan, arch-conservative, was smart enough to understand that he 
had to sit down with Gorbachev, a communist, and work out a nuclear treaty that 
protected humanity," Sanders said. "I think we can do that again now."