Sanders and Casar Introduce Bill to Permanently Ban Superintelligent AI

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would permanently prohibit the development or deployment of artificial superintelligence and impose an immediate pause on advanced AI systems trained at or above 10^25 operations until federal safety rules are established. The bill defines ASI as AI that matches or exceeds human cognitive performance across a broad range of domains, or systems capable of planning the disempowerment or overthrow of humanity. A new cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence would oversee compliance, with authority to force flagged models offline; confirmed superintelligence would be required to be destroyed. Advanced AI developers would need federal charters and must grant the government access to their systems, personnel, and physical infrastructure. Penalties include asset and IP forfeiture described in the bill as a 'corporate death penalty' and up to 20 years in prison for certain individuals. The bill also directs the United States to pursue international agreements, allied coordination, and export controls to stop superintelligence development globally. Separately, a UK AI bill contains a functionally identical directive on international coordination to halt superintelligence development worldwide. Sanders and Casar frame current AI development as an existential threat and target what they call 'AI oligarchs' building machines humans cannot control. Casar has said cutting-edge AI is currently less regulated than a food truck. MIRI has endorsed the legislation as directly confronting the extinction threat from AI. Experts including Heidy Khlaaf, François Chollet, and Roman Yampolskiy raised concerns about definitional challenges and regulatory feasibility.