Sanders and Casar Introduce Bill to Permanently Ban Artificial Superintelligence

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced legislation on September 23 that would permanently prohibit the development and use of artificial superintelligence, the term for a hypothetical system that exceeds human cognitive performance across the board. The bill also calls for a new federal agency to oversee frontier AI development. It is the most aggressive federal restriction on advanced AI proposed in Congress to date, and it lands as labs including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic race to build increasingly capable systems.

The measure defines artificial superintelligence as an AI system that outperforms the best human minds in every domain, including scientific reasoning, social judgment, and general problem-solving. Under the text, no person or company could build, train, deploy, or even use such a system inside the United States. The ban would be permanent rather than subject to periodic review, a structure that sets it apart from earlier proposals that sought licensing regimes or safety standards instead of outright prohibition.

The new agency envisioned in the bill would be tasked with monitoring frontier AI work, setting compliance rules, and enforcing the ban. That would put it in direct tension with the current federal posture, in which the White House and agencies like NIST have favored voluntary commitments and light-touch guidance. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, and Casar, a Texas Democrat, are pitching the bill as a preemptive stop rather than a reaction to a specific incident, arguing that once a superintelligent system exists, undoing it may not be possible.

The proposal faces long odds in a divided Congress, where AI legislation has repeatedly stalled and industry groups have spent heavily to shape any rules. Major labs have argued that halting frontier research would cede leadership to China and other competitors, while safety researchers have warned that capability gains are outrunning oversight. The bill has no Republican co-sponsors so far, and committee leaders have not signaled whether they will take it up.

What happens next will test whether the superintelligence ban can move from a messaging bill into an actual hearing. Watch for reactions from the major labs, from trade groups like the Chamber of Commerce, and from international bodies weighing their own frontier AI rules. If the bill gains even a handful of co-sponsors, it would mark a shift in what Congress is willing to consider putting off-limits.