Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar Introduce Bill to Ban Artificial Superintelligence, With Up to 20 Years in Prison for Violations
The September 2026 bill would pause frontier-model development until a scientist-led Department of Artificial Intelligence is created, requiring companies to obtain permission before building advanced models. Violators could face 20 years in prison.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) introduced legislation in September 2026 that would ban the development of artificial superintelligence in the United States, with violators facing up to 20 years in prison.
The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act targets what the bill describes as technology capable of the “destruction or disempowerment of humanity,” including by overthrowing the government. The legislation goes beyond superintelligence alone — it would also pause development of advanced AI systems, defined as frontier models trained on a specific threshold of data, until a government oversight body is established.
That body, a scientist-led Department of Artificial Intelligence, would be responsible for monitoring frontier AI models, overseeing the removal of dangerous features, and supervising the destruction of artificial superintelligence. AI companies would be required to obtain permission from this department before developing advanced AI models.
The 20-year prison penalty would apply to leaders at AI companies who violate the law, as well as to “rogue actors” who break the rules outside of a company context. The bill’s one-pager notes this penalty is “similar to existing penalties related to unlawfully developing nuclear weapons.”
The bill also references a recent shift in terminology: President Donald Trump has said the US will use “superintelligence” in place of “AI” in official government documents.
“When you are racing towards a cliff, you don’t just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes,” Sanders said in a press release accompanying the bill. “When the future of humanity is at stake, we cannot let a handful of Big Tech CEOs write their own rules.”
If passed, the legislation could significantly reshape how AI companies operate in the US, requiring government approval before advancing certain AI development and creating criminal liability for senior executives who proceed without it.