Congress Has Introduced Dozens Of AI Bills. Here’s What They Would Do.

Lawmakers introduced dozens of bills to address concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) as tech leaders issued dire warnings about its threat to humanity.

Tech leaders and AI researchers warned that the technology’s development must slow down, as Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at Anthropic, said people working at AI companies were “genuinely frightened” about the “fate of humanity in the next two years.” Several bills that would impose more federal regulations on AI remained untouched as these warnings garnered worldwide attention.

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Texas Rep. Greg Casar introduced the “Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act,” which would ban AI superintelligence that could “surpass human intelligence or have the capacity to overthrow human governments” and impose a pause on advanced AI development until a cabinet-level federal agency is established to “safeguard the public from the dangers” of AI.

An individual who created such technology could face up to 20 years in prison and a company that violated the ban would face a corporate death penalty, meaning the business would immediately be shut down.

Sanders introduced another bill called the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act in March, which would prohibit the construction or upgrade of AI data centers until comprehensive federal safety laws and worker protections were enacted. It restricts the export of AI-related computing hardware to countries without similar laws in effect.

Republican California Rep.  Jay Obernolte and Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Lori Trahan introduced the Frontier Risk Oversight, National Transparency, Independent Evaluation, and Reporting (FRONTIER) Act in July. The legislation intends to provide federal oversight of the “development and deployment of frontier artificial intelligence.” The bill focuses exclusively on major developers creating the most powerful “frontier” AI models rather than smaller innovators and startups.

The legislation would create a licensed marketplace of independent verification organizations (IVOs) to conduct external evaluations and assess safety testing. It would require major developers to report critical safety incidents to the federal government.

The bill would empower the secretary of Commerce to issue emergency orders to suspend the development or deployment of AI models if they pose an imminent threat. It aims to set a single federal baseline that preempts state-level laws on third party auditing, risk disclosures and incident reporting.

Olbernote introduced The Creating Resources for Every American to Experiment with Artificial Intelligence (Create AI) Act to establish the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource NAIRR), a national program to provide researchers, educators and students with access to AI data, computational resources and educational tools. The program would be established by the National Science Foundation (NSF).