Sanders and Casar Introduce Bill to Permanently Ban Superintelligent AI

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar have introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would permanently ban developing or deploying AI that matches or exceeds human cognitive performance across a broad range of domains, or that can easily be modified to do so. The bill also imposes a temporary pause on advanced AI development until a federal regulator establishes safety rules. Violators would face a 'corporate death penalty' for entities and up to 20 years in prison for individuals, a penalty the bill explicitly compares to existing penalties for unlawfully developing nuclear weapons. The bill requires supervised destruction of any existing superintelligent AI systems and directs the U.S. to pursue international agreements to prevent superintelligence from being developed anywhere. Sanders also published an op-ed on Fox News calling for a pause on AI development.