WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) are pushing legislation that would pause advanced AI development and hit non-compliant U.S. firms and individuals with extreme penalties — including a so-called “corporate death penalty” and up to 20 years in federal prison — a plan critics say would hand an edge to Beijing and Moscow, Fox News reported Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026.

The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, introduced Thursday, would temporarily halt advanced AI work until a new Cabinet-level federal AI agency writes safety standards and model-review rules, according to Fox and an earlier Washington Examiner account of the introduction. The agency would monitor frontier systems and could oversee removal of code and physical destruction of non-compliant “superintelligent” hardware.

Fox reported the bill models penalties on statutes covering unlawful nuclear-weapons development. Companies that circumvent the ban could lose legal authority to do business in the United States; engineers, researchers, or executives found in violation could face up to 20 years in prison. The measure targets systems that match or exceed human cognitive performance and that can subvert shutdown commands, execute unauthorized cyberattacks, undermine the U.S. government, or plan the “disempowerment of humanity,” Fox said.

Daniel Castro, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said: “If the United States stops developing advanced AI, China is unlikely to follow. Surrendering the lead in a potentially transformative technology would carry serious economic and national security costs.”

AI researcher Gary Marcus called a permanent unilateral ban on all research into superhuman AI “too broad” and “a guarantee” the U.S. would be left behind, while saying some aspects of the proposal were “defensible.” Aden Hizkias of Chamber of Progress called the approach “knee-jerk policymaking.” Fox said Sanders’ office did not respond in time for comment on adversary-advantage concerns.

The fight sits at the intersection of concentrated federal power and a technology race already underway at private labs. Whether Congress will entertain criminalizing frontier research — or create another Cabinet agency with destruction authority — remains an open political question.

Sources