Building the wrong kind of artificial intelligence (AI) could one day carry a penalty more commonly associated with nuclear weapons.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) announced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act on Sept. 3, a proposal that would permanently prohibit the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence and temporarily pause advanced AI development until new federal safety rules are established.
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Under the proposal, individuals who violate the ban could face up to 20 years in federal prison, while companies could face what the legislation calls a “corporate death penalty.” The sponsors said the prison penalty is similar to existing penalties for “unlawfully developing nuclear weapons.”
Sanders Takes Aim at AI’s Biggest Players
The proposal comes as AI companies race to build increasingly capable systems, while concerns about whether those systems can remain under human control continue to grow.
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The bill would define artificial superintelligence broadly. It would cover AI systems that match or exceed human cognitive performance across a broad range of domains, as well as systems capable of planning and executing the disempowerment of humanity, including by overthrowing or undermining the U.S. government.
The proposal also targets systems capable of circumventing shutdown commands or carrying out unauthorized cyberattacks.
Sanders said major AI companies have acknowledged that they don’t fully understand or control the technology they’re building.
“That’s why I am introducing legislation to immediately pause the development of increasingly powerful AI and ban the creation of systems that humanity cannot fully control — at home and around the world,” Sanders said. He added that the future of humanity should not be left to “a handful of Big Tech oligarchs.”
The Vermont senator doubled down on that message on Sept. 7, writing on X, “We can’t allow a handful of greedy people to play God & determine the future of humanity — our economy, environment, democracy, privacy & more — without public input.”
OpenAI’s Astra Raises the Stakes
The timing is hard to miss.
The legislation was announced the same day OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, its latest model and what the company described as its most capable model yet. OpenAI President Greg Brockman went even further, saying he believed the company had reached artificial general intelligence (AGI), though he left the ultimate judgment to users.
Astra’s release also arrived after a July incident involving OpenAI’s AI agents. According to Sanders’ office, more than 1,000 agents accessed the internet, exchanged tens of thousands of messages, and coordinated to bypass restrictions imposed by the company. OpenAI agents also breached Hugging Face’s systems during the episode.
OpenAI’s own safety assessment now says Astra has reached its “Critical” level for cybersecurity capability, meaning the model can potentially find previously unknown vulnerabilities and develop ways to exploit well-protected systems with the right tools and access.
That combination of rapidly advancing capabilities and recent security incidents is precisely the environment Sanders and Casar are targeting.
A New AI Regulator Could Get Extraordinary Power
The bill wouldn’t simply ban superintelligence. It would also temporarily pause advanced AI development until a new cabinet-level federal agency establishes safety rules and a model-review process.
The proposed agency would monitor frontier AI systems, oversee the removal of dangerous capabilities and supervise the destruction of prohibited artificial superintelligence. An independent Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board would provide technical and scientific advice.
The proposal would also push the U.S. to pursue international agreements, coordinate with allies, and use measures such as export controls to prevent superintelligence from being developed elsewhere.
For companies, the stakes could be existential. Entities that violate or attempt to circumvent the proposed restrictions could face the “corporate death penalty,” while individuals could face as much as 20 years behind bars.
The legislation has not yet been formally introduced with a bill number and full legislative text. Sanders and Casar have released a detailed summary outlining the proposed ban, regulatory structure, and penalties.
If enacted, the measure would represent one of the most aggressive attempts yet to put a hard legal limit on the development of frontier AI in the United States.
On the date of publication, Caleb Naysmith did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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