Sanders-Casar Bill Would Ban AI Superintelligence with 20-Year Jail Penalties

Senators Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, a 19-page bill that would pause advanced AI development until a new Cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence is established. Violations would carry a corporate death penalty and up to 20 years in prison, a penalty Sanders equated to unlawfully building nuclear weapons. A separate bill, the FRONTIER Act, introduced by Representatives Jay Obernolte and Lori Trahan, focuses on governing risks from frontier AI; the Foundation for American Innovation described it as the most promising legislative proposal to date for governing those risks. Senate AI subcommittee chair Ted Cruz is separately negotiating a bipartisan bill with Senators Thune and Klobuchar that would address catastrophic risks including biological or nuclear threats, though Cruz said no timeline for releasing text has been given.