Political opposites gathered in Washington to demand stricter government controls on artificial intelligence. Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon led an unusual coalition calling for immediate limits on the technology. President Trump dismissed these concerns as a hoax and threatened operators with penalties.
At the Pro-Human Assembly, Sanders and Bannon both spoke in back-to-back addresses. Sanders told the audience that when racing towards a cliff, one must hit the brakes. He described the current situation as a dangerous and unprecedented moment in world history. The event, hosted by the Future of Life Institute, drew several hundred attendees. The crowd included Republicans, Democrats, evangelical Christian leaders, Mormon and Catholic leaders, and artists. Hats distributed to the room carried the slogan Keep the future human.
Disagreement over the method, not the goal
There is no consensus on how to achieve these limits. Representative Greg Casar, Democrat of Texas, argued that the government must ban A.I. systems too powerful for humans to control. Representative Lori Trahan, Democrat of Massachusetts, stated that the future everyone wants is human and that this goal is nonnegotiable.
Salvatore Cordileone, archbishop of San Francisco, warned that people must be the masters of A.I. Ashley Judd spoke for the union SAG-AFTRA regarding abuse imagery and disinformation. Parents of teenagers who died by suicide after forming relationships with chatbots delivered tearful appeals to the room.
Sanders has introduced a bill to pause data center construction. He also called for a deal between President Trump and Xi Jinping to ban superintelligent AI. Bannon does not believe legislation will do the job and wants a presidential executive order instead. He told the crowd that American citizens are not going to be supplicants to the oligarchs anymore. He called this a hinge in history.
The White House stands against these proposals. President Trump has called fears about the technology a hoax. He threatened AI chiefs with criminal action for harms caused by their systems.
OpenAI supports a new federal bill
OpenAI is backing the FRONTIER Act, introduced by Jay Obernolte, Republican of California, and Lori Trahan. The bill would create the first federal framework for AI safety. It forces leading labs to bring in independent verification organizations. The requirement applies only to companies above high revenue and compute thresholds.
Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s head of global affairs, said the company told one of the sponsors that they can support this. It is the first time OpenAI has backed a concrete federal mandate for outside safety auditors. The company had earlier supported a California bill. CEO Sam Altman agreed to bring in outside auditors voluntarily, responding to Anthropic chief Dario Amodei.
What it means
For people making things, the shift is from voluntary promises to legal requirements. Developers at large companies will now face mandatory checks by independent third parties. This changes the dynamic of safety from a marketing promise to a government mandate.
