The Day After Trump Tells the U.N. "Welcome to the New World of Super Intelligence," Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar Introduce a Bill to Ban It — Sanders Says "When You Are Racing Towards a Cliff … You Hit the Brakes," While John Kennedy Says "I'm Not Going to Support That Right Now" and Rick Scott Calls Controlling AI by Statute "a Joke"
On September 23, 2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which they first announced on September 3. The bill would permanently ban the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence, impose an immediate pause on advanced "frontier" AI development until a federal regulator writes safety rules, create a cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence to enforce it, and direct the United States to pursue international agreements — including with China — so that no one builds AI "too powerful for humans to control." Violations would carry corporate dissolution and up to 20 years in prison. The bill landed a day after President Trump told the U.N. General Assembly that U.S. documents would now call AI "super intelligence," rejected any "globalist scheme of control" and said the United States would encourage the technology rather than rein it in. Casar's statement answered him directly: "Donald Trump says he wants to encourage it. Something has to change." It faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Congress. Asked by the Daily Caller the week before whether they would back a ban on AI that surpasses human intelligence, Sen. John Kennedy said "No," Sen. Rick Scott called the idea of passing a bill to control AI "a joke," and Sen. Josh Hawley said he was "really worried about superintelligence" but would not commit to a ban.
“A big day with President Xi of China. Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China's position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ!”