---
title: Bernie Sanders Moves to Ban Superintelligent AI as Trump Races to Beat China
description: Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to ban superintelligent AI and urged a Trump-Xi treaty to pause it, colliding with an administration racing to beat China.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-09-15T08:57:36.637Z
updated: 2026-09-15T08:57:36.698Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/sanders-ban-superintelligent-ai-trump-china-race
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/bernie-sanders-superintelligent-ai-5232.webp
categories: Politics
content_type: Analysis
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to prohibit the development of superintelligent AI and has called on President Trump to negotiate a treaty with China's Xi Jinping to pause AI development, a two-track push that runs directly against the Trump administration's stated policy of accelerating AI to stay ahead of China. Sanders and Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, put the bill forward in early September 2026. Days later, on September 12, Sanders took the second track public in a post on X, arguing that the two leaders should use their upcoming summit to strike a deal.

## Sanders' Bill Would Ban Superintelligence and Pause Advanced AI

The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, from Sanders and Casar, would permanently prohibit the development of superintelligence and temporarily pause the development of advanced AI until federal safety rules are in place. Individuals could face up to 20 years in prison under the bill, an unusually long term for technology regulation, and it carries penalties for corporations as well.

The bill defines superintelligence as AI that can significantly outperform humans on essentially all cognitive tasks, or that can operate without human oversight. That is a different category from the AI in wide use today, which handles specific tasks under human direction rather than surpassing people across the board.

In his post on X, Sanders wrote that Dario Amodei, Elon Musk and Sam Altman now agree that AI development must slow down and "pace the frontier," and he argued that agreement did not go far enough.

> "When you are racing towards a cliff, you don't just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes."
> — Bernie Sanders, US Senator

He added: "At their upcoming AI summit, Trump and Xi must negotiate a treaty to pause AI and ban superintelligence before it is too late."

## The Administration Has Chosen the Opposite Policy

Speaking to reporters on September 13, Trump cast AI as a contest the United States is winning and means to keep winning. "We're leading China in AI, we're the most sophisticated in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way," he said, adding that "whoever wins AI, wins." He dismissed the safety concerns behind proposals like Sanders'.

In a June 2026 executive order, [the White House directed that federal policy promote AI innovation and security](https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/06/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-promotes-advanced-artificial-intelligence-innovation-and-security/), and the order expressly states that nothing in it shall be construed to authorize the creation of any mandatory governmental licensing, pre-clearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release or distribution of AI models.

A regime that pauses advanced AI pending federal safety rules and bans a category of systems outright is, in effect, the pre-clearance system the order rules out. For the bill to become law, an administration that has forbidden that approach would have to sign it, or Congress would have to pass it over a veto. Neither looks likely in this Congress.

## The CEOs and the Movement Sanders Is Answering

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei published [an essay urging the industry to slow down and "pace the frontier"](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/dario-amodei-pace-the-frontier-embedded-evaluators), warning about loss of control, cyberattacks, bioterrorism and economic disruption. Amodei wrote that the industry must slow the pace at which it improves AI capabilities, while adding that progress would still be rapid. OpenAI's Sam Altman agreed on the need to pace the frontier and backed independent evaluators with deep access to AI systems. Musk was blunter in reply to Amodei, writing, "Dario is right."

[The Statement on Superintelligence](https://superintelligence-statement.org/), hosted by the Future of Life Institute, calls for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence that is not lifted before there is broad scientific consensus that it can be done safely and controllably, along with strong public buy-in. Launched in October 2025, it has gathered more than 73,000 signatures from a coalition that spans AI researchers, business leaders, and public figures across the political spectrum.

## Two Problems Stand Between the Bill and Any Effect

An open letter in 2023 made a similar call to pause AI development and drew a large number of signatures, yet it changed little, and development accelerated in the period that followed. Superintelligence also has no settled technical definition, which makes a legal ban difficult to draw a boundary around and difficult to prosecute. A prison sentence of up to 20 years attaches to a line that the field itself has not agreed how to draw.

The US-China AI race gives each government a reason to keep moving, an AI treaty would require both to accept limits at the same moment, and a domestic ban would require prosecutors to prove a system crossed a threshold no one has defined. Sanders has put the argument for a pause on the record with a concrete bill and a public appeal. What happens next depends on an administration that has said, plainly and repeatedly, that it wants to go faster.

## FAQ

**Q: How has China responded to the idea of a treaty?**
China has dismissed the US debate rather than embraced a pause. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, called the framing fearmongering, and China's Ministry of Commerce said US accusations about Chinese efforts were further proof that the United States is pursuing technological hegemony in AI. That reaction matters, because Sanders' plan depends on Beijing agreeing to negotiate.

**Q: Do American voters support the bill?**
A poll found that 68% of US voters backed the Sanders and Casar bill to pause advanced AI and ban superintelligence, suggesting the proposal has public support even as the administration opposes it.

**Q: Why does Sanders compare this to nuclear arms control?**
He points to Cold War precedent. Reagan and Gorbachev negotiated a nuclear arms agreement in the 1980s to reduce the risk of nuclear war, and Sanders argues a similar treaty between the United States and China could constrain AI before it becomes too powerful to manage.