Bernie Sanders wants a new federal agency with the power to physically destroy AI computers.
His bill would jail engineers for twenty years and let courts dissolve the companies that build it.
Then a fellow Democrat stood up and said Sanders just handed China the win.
Inside the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act: Prison Time and a Corporate Death Penalty for AI Firms
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act this month.
The bill treats advanced American AI development like an illegal nuclear weapons program.
Individual engineers and executives who don't comply could face up to twenty years in federal prison.
Companies that cross the line get hit with what the bill's own sponsors call a "corporate death penalty," stripping their legal right to operate in the United States.
A new cabinet level federal agency would get sweeping enforcement power over AI hardware and infrastructure nationwide.
Sanders says the whole industry needs to stop because tech executives themselves admit they don't fully understand what they built.
Casar was even blunter, comparing cutting edge AI to a food truck operating with no health inspector.
That sounds like accountability.
It is actually a plan to freeze American innovation while Beijing keeps building.
Fetterman Warns Sanders' Superintelligence Ban Hands China the AI Race
Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman started trashing this idea before Sanders had even introduced the bill.
Back in August, when reports surfaced that Sanders was eyeing a pause on AI development, Fetterman posted that America must lead in AI or live under China's rules.
He'd already branded an earlier Democrat proposal to freeze AI data centers "China First."
Tech policy experts backed him up fast.
Daniel Castro of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation warned that if the United States stops building advanced AI, China is not going to follow along.
AI researcher Gary Marcus, who has testified before the Senate himself, called a permanent superintelligence ban too broad and said it's basically a guarantee America falls behind.
History already ran this experiment once.
In 1958 the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union all announced unilateral halts to nuclear testing.
Within a few years every one of them resumed testing anyway, each side too afraid the others would gain a technical edge.
America learned that lesson again decades later with computer chips.
When Washington leaned on the Netherlands to block advanced chipmaking equipment from reaching China, it worked, because allies moved together and the technology couldn't be replicated overnight.
Sanders' bill does the opposite. It ties America's own hands and hopes Beijing plays fair.
Why Sanders' Own Party Is Handing Him This Loss
Bernie Sanders has spent sixty years fighting capitalism, and now he wants to put silicon in cuffs too.
Here's why that should worry you even if you've never touched a chatbot in your life.
China isn't holding a Senate hearing about whether to build superintelligent AI.
It's pouring concrete for data centers as fast as it can.
A prison sentence doesn't slow Beijing down for a single day.
It just makes sure the smartest engineers in America stop building here and start looking for a country that will let them work.
The thing that fires people up most about this bill isn't even the prison time.
It's that Bernie Sanders needed a fellow Democrat to remind him that unilateral surrender isn't a strategy.
Fetterman gets it. Trump gets it.
The only man in Washington who doesn't seem to get it just introduced a bill with his own name on it.
Sources:
- Alec Schemmel, "Sanders pushes 'death penalty' for crucial US industry that could give advantage to foreign adversaries," Fox News, September 6, 2026.
- Fox News Staff, "Fetterman aligns with Trump on AI push, warns China benefits from US 'overreaction,'" Fox News, August 23, 2026.
- AI Weekly Staff, "Sanders, Casar Bill Would Ban Superintelligence, Pause Frontier AI," AI Weekly, September 2026.
