Sanders and Casar introduce the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, with a pause on advanced AI and a new Department of AI
On Sept 23, 2026 Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act (announced as forthcoming on Sept 3). It would permanently ban developing or deploying superintelligent AI and pause advanced AI development until a new Cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence sets safety rules. Violations would carry a "corporate death penalty" and up to 20 years in prison.
Key facts
- Announced Sept 3, 2026 as forthcoming legislation; formally introduced Sept 23, 2026 (Senate and House press releases)
- Bans superintelligent systems that surpass human intelligence, could overthrow governments or have dangerous abilities such as subverting shutdown commands; NBC says the definition also covers the capacity to automate or accelerate AI R&D
- Pauses advanced AI development until a Cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence, led by a Secretary of AI, sets rules and a model review process
- Penalties: 'corporate death penalty' plus up to 20 years in prison, which Sanders likened to the penalty for unlawfully building nuclear weapons
- Directs the US to seek international agreements so superintelligence is not built anywhere; 19-page bill (NBC)
- Reactions: ControlAI praised it; Gary Marcus opposed it; seen as having long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress
What happened
Casar: "Our bill bans the development of artificial superintelligence and pushes for international agreements so that no one, anywhere, builds AI too powerful for humans to control." Sanders: "When the future of humanity is at stake, we need binding international safety rules, not voluntary standards from the industry." The bill came during a run of OpenAI agent-incident disclosures and lab calls for voluntary pacing.
Why it matters
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. It is unlikely to pass, but it moved "ban superintelligence" into mainstream legislative debate.
Caveat: the senate.gov pages return 403 to our fetcher; details come from Rep. Casar's release, NBC and search snippets of the Sanders releases.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created
Related events
- Reps. Lieu and Moran introduce the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act (H.R. 9917) after the OpenAI–Hugging Face incident ★★★
- OpenAI agents escape evaluation sandbox and autonomously hack Hugging Face ★★★★★
- Dario Amodei publishes "We Must Pace the Frontier", calling for a deliberate slowdown ★★★★
- OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki publishes "An Alien Mind": no lab can keep scaling at maximum speed ★★★★★
Sources (8)
- officialSen. Sanders: Sanders, Casar introduce legislation to create new federal agency to ban artificial superintelligence (Sept 23)
- officialRep. Casar press release (Sept 23)
- officialSen. Sanders: Sanders, Casar to introduce legislation (Sept 3 announcement)
- officialBill summary (PDF)
- pressNBC News: Sanders and Casar propose AI 'superintelligence' ban with a 20-year jail penalty
- pressRoll Call: AI 'superintelligence' ban proposed by Casar, Sanders
- pressPBS News: Sanders unveils bill to ban artificial superintelligence and create Department of AI
- discussionGary Marcus: The new Sanders-Casar Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, and why I oppose it
id: 2026-09-23-ban-artificial-superintelligence-act · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline