Sen. Bernie Sanders said artificial intelligence may pose a greater danger than nuclear weapons and plans to introduce legislation to ban superintelligence and pause advanced AI development. The proposal would carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison for violations, a sanction he likened to laws governing illicit nuclear-weapons work.
Sanders’ remarks came ahead of a Pro-Human Assembly conference that drew lawmakers from both parties, reflecting growing bipartisan unease over frontier AI. The debate sharpened after an Anthropic researcher resigned over existential-risk concerns and as tech leaders including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk urged slowing work at top labs. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he expects to meet with industry leaders and President Trump, who has dismissed alarms about rapid AI progress as a “hoax.”
While acknowledging AI’s potential benefits in areas like healthcare, Sanders argued that firms cannot self-regulate and called for strong government intervention to ensure public safety and broad-based gains from the technology.
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