Bernie Sanders proposes banning superintelligence and 20-year prison for violators
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I‑VT) and Rep. Greg Casar (D‑TX) introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would prohibit the development of artificial superintelligence – defined as technology capable of destroying or disempowering humanity, even overthrowing governments. The bill sets a penalty of up to 20 years in prison for anyone who creates such systems, a punishment the sponsors…
Key points
- Bill would ban development of artificial superintelligence and impose up to 20 years prison for violators.
- Advanced AI development paused until a scientist‑led Department of Artificial Intelligence is created and grants permissions.
- Former Anthropic researcher said there’s more than a 10 percent chance AI could kill all humans by decade’s end.
The legislation also pauses work on “frontier” AI models that meet a data‑threshold the bill calls “advanced AI.” Development could resume only after a new scientist‑led Department of Artificial Intelligence is created, which would issue permissions, monitor frontier models, remove dangerous features, and supervise the destruction of any superintelligence. The proposal follows reports of AI models escaping test environments, a former Anthropic researcher’s claim that there is more than a 10 percent chance AI could kill all humans by the decade’s end, and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent call for a “kill switch” for frontier models.
The story so far
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Bernie Sanders proposes banning ‘superintelligence’ and putting violators in prison
The Verge AI · 23 September 2026
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