Sanders bill would ban superintelligence, create Department of AI
The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act would pause advanced AI work until a new federal regulator writes safety rules, and carries prison terms of up to 20 years.
Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar presented legislation on Wednesday that would permanently ban artificial superintelligence and create a cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence. The bill would also pause advanced AI development until the new regulator writes safety rules, and would require federal approval before an advanced system is deployed.
The Associated Press reported the introduction, which follows a September 3 announcement from Sanders's office that the two intended to bring the bill forward. That release defines superintelligence as a system that surpasses human intelligence or could overthrow human governments. The AP renders the same definition as exceeding human cognitive ability or planning humanity's destruction.
Penalties run to 20 years in prison in some cases, a term Sanders's office compares to unlawfully developing nuclear weapons. The release also describes a corporate death penalty for entities that break the ban, and an AI Advisory Board to supply scientific guidance to the new department.
Employees at two of the companies the bill would cover have endorsed it, according to the AP. They include Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, a researcher on OpenAI's Safety Systems team, and Swante Scholz, a software engineer at Google DeepMind, who said the current path leads to what he called an existential catastrophe for humanity.
"It doesn't take a genius to say, 'slow it down,'" Sanders said. The bill faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Congress that has not agreed on narrower AI rules, and President Trump has resisted regulation. The AP account carries no response from OpenAI or Google DeepMind, and the measure may not reach a vote.