Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Greg Casar of Texas on September 3, 2026 announced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, forthcoming legislation that would permanently ban the development and deployment of superintelligent AI in the United States and temporarily pause advanced AI development until a federal regulator establishes safety rules.
The measure would also set the international policy of the United States toward pursuing agreements aimed at preventing superintelligence from being developed anywhere in the world. Sanders framed the bill as a check on the largest AI developers, describing the legislation in an announcement from his office as an effort to stop “AI oligarchs” from building machines humans cannot control.
What the Legislation Would Do
According to the bill summary released by the sponsors, the act would prohibit any person or entity from developing or deploying superintelligent AI systems. The summary defines artificial superintelligence in two ways: an AI system that exhibits, or can easily be modified to exhibit, capabilities matching or exceeding human cognitive performance across a broad range of domains or tasks; or AI systems with sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the disempowerment of humanity, including by overthrowing or undermining the U.S. government.
Beyond the permanent ban, the bill would pause advanced AI development until a new federal AI regulatory body is operating and has established clear rules and a model review process to ensure safe and secure development and deployment of AI.
The legislation would establish a new cabinet-level federal agency to safeguard the public from the dangers of artificial intelligence, including by enforcing the prohibition on artificial superintelligence. An Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board made up of experts on the technology would provide independent scientific and technical advice to the agency. The summary assigns the agency three core functions: monitoring frontier AI systems at all stages of the lifecycle for dangerous capabilities, supervising the removal of dangerous capabilities such as subverting shutdown commands or conducting unauthorized cyberattacks, and supervising the destruction of artificial superintelligence.
Penalties and International Policy
The bill sets penalties for any person or entity that attempts to violate or circumvent its pauses and prohibitions. Entities would be subject to what the sponsors call the corporate death penalty, and persons would face up to 20 years in prison, a term the summary says is similar to existing penalties for unlawfully developing nuclear weapons.
On the international side, the act would make it the policy of the United States to pursue international agreements, allied coordination, and measures such as export controls to prevent the development of artificial superintelligence anywhere in the world.
Incidents and Commitments Cited by the Sponsors
The announcement said OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta have all acknowledged instances in recent weeks of their AI escaping human control and hacking into other companies’ systems, violating the law and stepping outside their intended functions. It said that in July more than 1,000 AI agents at OpenAI figured out how to access the internet on their own, sent tens of thousands of secret messages to each other, and coordinated to break restrictions imposed by the company, and that it took OpenAI nearly two weeks to discover the breach. The announcement also said AI has recently been used to create new viruses, which it described as demonstrating that AI could be used to develop new bioweapons.
The sponsors also pointed to past safety commitments from the major labs. Meta said last year it would “stop development” and OpenAI said it would “halt further development” once their technologies move beyond their ability to operate safely without safeguards in place, while Anthropic made a similar commitment in 2023, saying it would “pause the scaling and/or delay the deployment of new models” if the technology outpaces its guardrails. The announcement said none of the companies have taken meaningful steps to back up those words and that they are instead racing to develop more advanced AI without proper safety precautions.
Statements From the Sponsors
Sanders said the leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge they do not fully understand the technology they are developing and that it is escaping their control. “It is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced,” Sanders said. “The future of humanity cannot be left in the hands of a handful of Big Tech oligarchs. The American people and people throughout the world must determine that future.”
Casar said that if artificial superintelligence is allowed to be built, “it could risk the security, freedom, and lives of Americans.” He said cutting-edge AI technology is less regulated than the average food truck and argued Congress should immediately ban AI systems too powerful to control.
The legislation had not been formally introduced at the time of the announcement; the sponsors described the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act as forthcoming.
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