Sanders attaches a 20-year prison penalty to his superintelligence ban
The bill would freeze the most advanced AI development until a new Cabinet-level Department of AI writes safety rules, then require federal approval before deployment. Researchers at OpenAI and Google DeepMind endorsed it.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Sanders and Casar unveiled legislation on Wednesday that would permanently prohibit artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced AI.
- The bill would also ban recursive self-improvement and stand up the Department of Artificial Intelligence as a Cabinet-level body, pausing advanced development until it writes guidelines.
- Advanced systems would need federal approval before deployment, and violations could carry penalties including up to 20 years in prison in some cases.
- Current employees at AI companies and outside experts signed a statement backing the bill, shared with the Associated Press.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint A pre-deployment approval gate puts frontier release timing inside an agency that does not exist, and the development pause has no end date until that agency is staffed and its rules are written.
- Who's exposed exposure Prison terms reach individuals. A levy can be modelled into a cost of capital, but no model absorbs a prison sentence, and the researchers endorsing the bill hold the jobs it would police.
- Who has to decide decision Winning a chamber this fall would force Democrats to choose between taxing the sector and halting its most advanced work, starting from Casar's instruction to discard the smaller bills.
- What it sets up precedent Governors are moving without waiting for Congress, so the oversight a lab has to budget for arrives state by state before any federal department opens its doors.
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Nothing in this bill becomes a cost to a lab this year. Semafor reported that Congress is unlikely to act on AI in the lame-duck session [8]. The Associated Press account carried by Fortune puts the bill at long odds in a Republican-controlled Congress that has not agreed on far narrower AI measures [5]. Trump has resisted recent calls for greater federal oversight [13]. Sanders told the AP, "It doesn't take a genius to say, 'slow it down.'" [4]
What a shareholder can price is the next Congress. If Democrats take the House or Senate this fall they will have to untangle a set of competing AI proposals [8], and Casar, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus [14], has already set the terms of that fight. "We need to throw out these proposals that would not actually address the scale of the problems," he said [19].
Two of the three federal proposals in these two accounts take cash off the sector's balance sheet. Sanders introduced legislation in June to create a sovereign wealth fund financed by a one-time tax on the stock of the largest AI companies [15]. Sen. Mark Kelly plans a bill on Thursday creating a fund that tech companies would pay into to support workforce development [20]. Neither account specifies a rate for the tax or a size for the fund [21]. The third proposal takes the product off the market. It would permanently prohibit systems exceeding human cognitive ability, ban recursive self-improvement, and require federal approval before any advanced system is deployed [3][6][9].
Violations could carry up to 20 years in prison in some cases [9]. Criminal exposure attaches to people, and the people endorsing this bill work inside the labs it would police [10]. Juan Felipe Ceron Uribe, a researcher in OpenAI's Safety Systems, said "superintelligence could either go extremely right or extremely wrong" and that "we shouldn't be playing such games" [11]. Swante Scholz is a software engineer at Google DeepMind and said he was not speaking on behalf of his employer. On the current path of development, he said, the "most likely outcome is an existential catastrophe for humanity" [12].
The polling in the AP account is about power and water. Concern about AI's environmental impacts reached 53% extremely or very concerned, up from 41% a year earlier [18]. That is 12 points in a year, a relative rise of just under 30% [22], and the AP attributes much of the increase to Democrats [18].
In my view the levy is the tradeable content here. A statutory line drawn at exceeding human cognitive ability [3] is hard for any agency to administer, while a one-time tax on AI equity needs only a rate and a date [15]. The counter-thesis is Sanders' own timetable, "we have to act immediately when Congress returns" [7], and the company he has been keeping while he builds it, including a conference last week alongside Republicans such as Steve Bannon [16]. A Republican co-sponsor on a ban, or Trump reversing his position on oversight [13], would undercut the case for the levy.
What to watch
- Kelly's bill text on Thursday, and whether it names a contribution rate or a base for the fund tech companies would pay into.
- Whether the bill gives the Department of Artificial Intelligence a deadline for writing safety rules, since the development pause runs until those rules exist.
- Whether more current employees at frontier labs add their names, and whether any employer responds to staff endorsing criminal penalties.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption15
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives70
- Confidence66
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Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Greg Casar unveiled legislation on Wednesday that would ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced AI.
- [2]
The bill would pause advanced AI development until guidelines are implemented, while creating the Department of Artificial Intelligence.
- [3]
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.
- [4]
"It doesn't take a genius to say, 'slow it down,'" Sanders said in an interview with the AP.
- [5]
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.
- [6]
In addition to banning superintelligence, the legislation would ban "recursive self-improvement" and stand up a new Cabinet-level agency to oversee AI.
- [7]
"There's a sense of urgency. Candidates have got to start talking about it now. They've got to talk about it in '28, and we have to act immediately when Congress returns," Sanders told reporters on Wednesday.
- [8]
It is unlikely for Congress to act on AI in the lame-duck session, and Democrats will have to untangle a host of competing proposals next Congress if they win control of the House or Senate this fall.
- [9]
Advanced AI systems would need federal approval before they could be deployed, and violations could carry significant penalties, including up to 20 years in prison in some cases.
- [10]
A number of current employees at AI companies and experts signed on in support of the bill, according to a statement shared with the AP.
- [11]
Juan Felipe Ceron Uribe, a researcher in OpenAI's Safety Systems, said in a statement supporting the bill that "superintelligence could either go extremely right or extremely wrong" and that "we shouldn't be playing such games."
- [12]
Swante Scholz, a software engineer at Google DeepMind who said he was not speaking on behalf of his employer, said that on the current path of development the "most likely outcome is an existential catastrophe for humanity."
- [13]
President Donald Trump has resisted recent calls for greater government oversight, putting him at odds with tech leaders including Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk.
- [14]
Casar, a Democrat from Texas, is the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
- [15]
In June, Sanders introduced legislation to create a sovereign wealth fund financed through a one-time tax on the stock of the largest AI companies.
- [16]
Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate who is now 85, hosted colleagues last week for a briefing with experts and also attended a conference focused on the issue alongside Republicans, including former White House adviser Steve Bannon.
- [17]
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced a plan to regulate AI on Tuesday, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order last week to accelerate implementation of a California law calling for independent oversight of AI companies.
- [18]
An AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago poll found 53% of Americans are "extremely" or "very" concerned about AI's environmental impacts, up from 41% last year, with Democrats driving much of the increase.
- [19]
Casar said Congress needs to aim bigger than with previous proposals: "We need to throw out these proposals that would not actually address the scale of the problems."
- [20]
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., plans to introduce his own AI bill on Thursday, creating a fund that tech companies would pay into to support workforce development for Americans as AI changes the economy.
- [21]
Neither account gives a rate for the one-time tax on AI company stock nor a size for the fund in Kelly's bill.
- [22]
The share of Americans extremely or very concerned about AI's environmental impacts rose 12 percentage points in a year, a relative increase of just under 30%.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- fortune.com‘It doesn’t take a genius to say, ‘slow it down”: Bernie Sanders unveils bill to ban artificial superintelligence
1 article · September 23, 2026
- semafor.comProgressive Democrats push superintelligence ban
1 article · September 23, 2026
Topics and entities
Entities
- OpenAI
- AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
- Google DeepMind
- Department of Artificial Intelligence
- Donald Trump
- Greg Casar
- Mark Kelly
- Associated Press
- Bernie Sanders
- Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe
- Congressional Progressive Caucus
- Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago
- Gavin Newsom
- Wes Moore
- Anthropic
- xAI