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Washington — <\/span>Two leading progressive lawmakers, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, are unveiling legislation Wednesday that would ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced AI<\/a> as some of the industry\u2019s own leaders urge Congress to impose guardrails on the advancing technology.<\/p>\n The bill, provided first to The Associated Press, would also pause advanced AI development until guidelines are implemented while creating the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Multiple employees at leading AI companies are endorsing the bill.<\/p>\n “It doesn\u2019t take a genius to say, \u2018slow it down,\u2019\u201d Sanders, I-Vt., said in an interview with AP. \u201cDo we really want to develop a super intelligence that when it becomes smarter than human beings could act independently of human control? I don\u2019t think we do.\u201d<\/p>\n Congress has so far done little to rein in the AI industry even as some of its most prominent leaders warn about potentially catastrophic risks. President Donald Trump has resisted<\/a> recent calls for greater government oversight, putting him at odds with tech leaders including Anthropic\u2019s Dario Amodei, OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman and xAI\u2019s Elon Musk.<\/p>\n The legislation would permanently prohibit artificial superintelligence, which it defines as a system that exceeds human cognitive ability or has sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the destruction or disempowerment of humanity.<\/p>\n It would temporarily pause development of the most advanced AI systems until new federal safety rules are established by a new Department of Artificial Intelligence. Advanced AI systems would then need federal approval before they could be deployed. Violations could carry significant penalties, including up to 20 years in prison in some cases.<\/p>\n A number of current employees at AI companies and experts signed on in support of the bill, according to a statement shared with AP.<\/p>\n Juan Felipe Cer\u00f3n Uribe, a researcher in OpenAI\u2019s Safety Systems, said in a statement supporting the bill that \u201csuperintelligence could either go extremely right or extremely wrong\u201d and that \u201cwe shouldn\u2019t be playing such games.\u201d<\/p>\n Swante Scholz, a software engineer at Google DeepMind who said he was not speaking on behalf of his employer, said on the current path of development, the \u201cmost likely outcome is an existential catastrophe for humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA ban on superintelligence development would be a positive change for the foreseeable future,\u201d Scholz said in a statement. <\/p>\n The bill from Sanders and Casar faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress, where lawmakers have struggled to coalesce around even less sweeping AI regulations. <\/p>\n But it offers a window into how the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is approaching AI regulation ahead of November\u2019s midterms and a 2028 presidential campaign in which the technology is expected to be an increasingly prominent issue. Casar, a Democrat from Texas, is the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.<\/p>\n Potential 2028 presidential candidates have rushed in recent weeks to release proposals showing they’re taking the issue seriously. Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore announced a plan to regulate AI on Tuesday, while California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order<\/a> to accelerate implementation of a California law that calls for independent oversight of AI companies last week. <\/p>\n Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate who is now 85, has especially focused<\/a> on the issue in recent months. In June, he introduced legislation to create a sovereign wealth fund financed through a one-time tax on the stock of the largest AI companies. Last week, he hosted colleagues for a briefing with experts and also attended a conference focused on the issue alongside Republicans, including former White House adviser Steve Bannon. <\/p>\n The debate over AI regulations has scrambled political alliances both in Washington and for voters across the country. <\/p>\n Americans have grown more concerned about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence<\/a> over the last year, according to a recent poll<\/a> from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a> and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n The survey data say about half, 53%, of Americans are \u201cextremely\u201d or \u201cvery\u201d concerned about artificial intelligence\u2019s environmental impacts. That is up from 41% last year. Democrats are driving much of the increase in environmental concern, but the poll also reveals broader worries about the local impact of data centers, which power AI and cloud computing.<\/p>\n While some industry leaders have called for new safeguards, Trump has pushed in the opposite direction. On Tuesday, Trump told the United Nations General Assembly that artificial intelligence will be renamed \u201csuper intelligence.”<\/p>\n \u201cI think Trump has very little understanding of what this issue is about,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI think he\u2019s mainly concerned about the economic implications of a slowdown.\u201d<\/p>\n