Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026

This bill would create a federal Department of Artificial Intelligence, led by a Secretary appointed by the President with Senate approval. It would pause the training and release of advanced AI systems until the Department is fully staffed and has issued safety rules, and it would ban developing, owning, or transferring artificial superintelligence or AI systems with certain risky traits. Developers would need a federal charter and pre-release approval for advanced AI models, and the Secretary would have to shut down systems found to have banned traits. Violations could bring prison terms of up to 20 years, 10-year industry employment bans, charter revocation, and forfeiture of assets. The bill also protects whistleblowers from retaliation and directs the government to seek international agreements against superintelligence.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Bernard Sanders Independent sponsor
• 0 cosponsors