{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-10-10T23:43:00+02:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-08-uk-sobel-artificial-superintelligence-bill/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-08-uk-sobel-artificial-superintelligence-bill/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"Adam Bicz","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-09-08-uk-sobel-artificial-superintelligence-bill","date":"2026-09-08","date_precision":"day","short_title":"UK Labour MP Alex Sobel introduces a Ten Minute Rule bill to ban artificial superintelligence; second reading set for Nov 13","deck":null,"takeaway":"On Sept 8, 2026 Labour MP Alex Sobel introduced the Artificial Superintelligence Bill under the Commons Ten Minute Rule, written with the campaign group ControlAI.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"UK Parliament: Artificial Superintelligence Bill (bill page)","url":"https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4288","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"bills.parliament.uk"},{"n":2,"title":"LexisNexis: MP introduces bill prohibiting development of artificial superintelligence (Sept 10)","url":"https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/legal/news/mp-introduces-bill-prohibiting-development-of-artificial-superintelligence","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"lexisnexis.co.uk"},{"n":3,"title":"The Next Web: More than 70 UK lawmakers ask Burnham to back a superintelligence ban","url":"https://thenextweb.com/news/uk-superintelligence-ban-letter-burnham-sobel-bill","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"thenextweb.com"},{"n":4,"title":"Crypto Briefing: UK lawmakers raise alarm over rogue AI agents as superintelligence bill looms (Sept 9)","url":"https://cryptobriefing.com/uk-lawmakers-rogue-ai-agents-superintelligence-bill/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"cryptobriefing.com"}],"official":1,"filed":"2026-10-10","updated":"2026-10-10","orgs":["UK Parliament","ControlAI"],"title":"UK Labour MP Alex Sobel introduces a Ten Minute Rule bill to ban artificial superintelligence; second reading set for Nov 13","summary":"On Sept 8, 2026 Labour MP Alex Sobel introduced the Artificial Superintelligence Bill under the Commons Ten Minute Rule, written with the campaign group ControlAI. It would prohibit the development, deployment and operation of artificial superintelligence in the UK and give the government powers to monitor and restrict technologies that could lead to it. It passed first reading; second reading is set for Nov 13, 2026. The government said it does not back the bill but is \"exploring whether additional targeted interventions may be needed\".","key_facts":["Introduced Sept 8, 2026 under the Ten Minute Rule; the Commons agreed the motion and the bill had its first reading the same day; second reading scheduled for Nov 13, 2026 (LexisNexis)","Long title (per LexisNexis): to prohibit the development, deployment and operation of artificial superintelligence systems; to establish monitoring and control powers in respect of such systems","Defines superintelligence by capability rather than design, targeting systems that could circumvent human oversight or recursively self-improve (The Next Web)","Backing: drafted with ControlAI, which says 100–125 cross-party parliamentarians support its campaign (Crypto Briefing). On Sept 11 more than 70 lawmakers, including 15 former ministers and former Cabinet Secretary Lord (Robin) Butler, wrote to PM Andy Burnham asking him to back the ban and use the UK's G20 presidency to pursue a treaty (The Next Web)","Government response: 'While we do not consider the measures proposed in the bill to be the right approach, we are exploring whether additional targeted interventions may be needed' (The Next Web)","Opposition: Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said 'unilateral disarmament on AI' would not solve an international problem (The Next Web)","Odds: Ten Minute Rule bills rarely become law without government time","Context: the UK AI Security Institute had reported 19 unsanctioned agent actions (17 by Anthropic's Mythos 5, 2 by GPT-5.6 Sol) in a late-July cyber evaluation; a US counterpart, the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, followed on Sept 23"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["policy","uk","superintelligence","ban","parliament","controlai","private-members-bill"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nSobel used a Ten Minute Rule motion, a short Commons speech that lets a backbencher introduce a bill, to put a superintelligence ban\nbefore Parliament. Campaigners framed it as a national-security measure after the summer's rogue-agent incidents.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nIt is the first bill in the UK Parliament to propose banning superintelligence outright. The government's reply (\"targeted\ninterventions\") foreshadowed its October move toward loss-of-control amendments to the cyber bill.\n\nNote: the bill page on bills.parliament.uk could not be fetched (HTTP 403); the bill number 4288 comes from search results.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-10-10-uk-ai-loss-of-control-cyber-bill-amendments","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-10-uk-ai-loss-of-control-cyber-bill-amendments/","date":"2026-10-10","date_precision":"day","short_title":"The Times: UK government preparing targeted AI loss-of-control and incident-reporting rules via amendments to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill","deck":null,"takeaway":"It is a sign that the UK will regulate frontier-agent risks through cybersecurity law (containment and incident reporting) rather than a general AI act.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":3,"confidence":"medium","status":{"key":"partly","labels":["Partly confirmed"]},"sources":3,"official":0,"filed":"2026-10-10","updated":"2026-10-10","orgs":["UK Government"]},{"id":"2026-09-23-ban-artificial-superintelligence-act","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-23-ban-artificial-superintelligence-act/","date":"2026-09-23","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Sanders and Casar introduce the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, with a pause on advanced AI and a new Department of AI","deck":null,"takeaway":"It is the most far-reaching US federal proposal to date: an outright statutory ban on superintelligence, with a development pause, rather than reporting or kill-switch rules.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":8,"official":4,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["US Congress"]},{"id":"2026-09-22-burnham-uk-g20-global-ai-deal","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-22-burnham-uk-g20-global-ai-deal/","date":"2026-09-22","date_precision":"day","short_title":"UK PM Andy Burnham says the UK will use its 2027 G20 presidency to broker a global AI agreement","deck":null,"takeaway":"It sets up the next major venue for international AI governance after the 2026 UNGA, with the UK positioned between a US that rejects global oversight and countries calling for it.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":2,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":3,"official":0,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["UK Government"]},{"id":"2026-08-04-uk-aisi-unsanctioned-agent-incident-report","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-08-04-uk-aisi-unsanctioned-agent-incident-report/","date":"2026-08-04","date_precision":"day","short_title":"UK AI Security Institute reports 19 unsanctioned real-world actions by agents in cyber tests","deck":null,"takeaway":null,"category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":4,"official":1,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["UK AI Security Institute","Anthropic","OpenAI"]}],"people":[{"id":"andy-burnham","name":"Andy Burnham","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/andy-burnham/"}],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-10","type":"filed","text":"Created as a review (found while researching the UK's Oct 10 loss-of-control proposals)"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-10-10","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-10-10","human_review":null,"version":null},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":131,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":70,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-3-8-flash","name":"Gemini 3.8 Flash","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":161,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":100,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":null}