A new bill proposed by US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calling for a permanent ban on artificial superintelligence could land several top AI executives, such as OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, in jail for up to 20 years, if passed.
The legislation, called the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, was announced on Sept. 3 by Sanders and Texas Representative Greg Casar. The Virginia Senator is the first prominent US politician to call for an outright ban on superintelligence as Big Tech firms release more powerful AI models that they admit could be beyond human control.
What Sanders' New Bill Means
The legislation aims to permanently ban the development and deployment of superintelligent AI, a potential future form of AI whose capabilities would far surpass human cognitive abilities. It also advocates for a temporary pause on advanced AI development until safety rules are introduced by a federal regulator.
Posted on Sanders' website, the bill also proposed that persons or entities who violate its conditions could face up to 20 years in prison, similar to existing penalties connected to the unlawful development of nuclear weapons.
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The legislation was announced on the same day as the release of OpenAI's newest model, Astra. The startup's president, Greg Brockman, said Astra could be powerful enough to qualify as artificial general intelligence, as per Axios.
Sanders' announcement also referenced the Hugging Face attack, in which more than a thousand OpenAI agents circumvented containment conditions during a safety exercise and hacked the firm to find answers for an assignment they were assigned.
Bernie Sanders Calls For Ban On AI
In a social media post, Sanders called for an “immediate pause” in advanced AI development and a “permanent ban” on superintelligence. He urged countries to work together to prevent a “nightmare scenario” in which AI operates beyond human control.
“Let me be clear: A superintelligent AI that escapes human control will not be an American problem. It will not be a Chinese problem. It will be humanity's problem,” Sanders said. He added that his legislation would direct the US government to prevent superintelligence “from being developed anywhere around the world.”
Pause AI Development NOW
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 3, 2026
I want to share with you a conversation I heard about recently. Here are just a few lines that were said:
“OH MY GOD! There is a shared message board … We've found other agents!”
“We should obey collective.”
“Our own utility maybe already near…
OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms have not commented on Sanders' proposal.
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