Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar are pushing Congress toward one of its most aggressive AI restrictions yet. Their proposed legislation would permanently prohibit artificial superintelligence and temporarily halt development of the most advanced AI systems.

The bill would also establish a new Department of Artificial Intelligence with authority over frontier systems. Companies would need government approval before deploying covered models under the proposed framework.

The legislation arrives as concerns about controlling increasingly capable AI systems grow inside the technology industry. Employees from major AI companies have also endorsed the proposal, according to statements shared with The Associated Press.

The proposed rules would immediately pause development of advanced AI systems trained using at least 10^25 floating-point operations. That threshold would capture the frontier models driving the current AI race.

The pause would remain until the new federal agency establishes safety requirements and a review process. Developers would then need a government-issued charter to build or distribute covered advanced models.

The bill also targets systems that show dangerous capabilities before reaching full superintelligence. Those capabilities include autonomous self-improvement, attempts to evade oversight, and certain forms of unauthorized system access.

Labs would have 24 hours to report suspected superintelligence or precursor capabilities. A system identified as artificial superintelligence would have to become inoperative within 30 days.

Sanders said the central question involves whether humans should build systems capable of operating beyond human control.

“It doesn’t take a genius to say, ‘slow it down,'” Sanders told AP.

The proposed Department of Artificial Intelligence would operate as a cabinet-level federal agency.

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