AI Regulation & Policy

Today's Stories

1. 1

   Bernie Sanders drafts bill to ban superintelligence

   Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar are crafting legislation to ban artificial "superintelligence" outright. Text is expected in the coming weeks. The bill would also pause advanced AI development and create a Cabinet-level agency. The proposal is the most extreme AI-related legislation to date, according to the column. It also centralizes more federal power over AI than any prior bill. It sets penalties for advanced AI models at the level of illegally building nuclear weapons.

   It isn't clear how much support the bill would get while Republican majorities mostly back Trump's pro-AI posture. The bill's progress hinges on whether that support materializes once text arrives in the coming weeks.

2. 2

   Anthropic's Dario Amodei: time to pump the brakes on AI

   Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed a three-step plan to 'pace the frontier' — slowing training and development — and said Anthropic is now unilaterally giving external evaluators like METR wide-ranging access to its models. Step two would have the industry, likely with government agencies, set common safety standards and limits on unchecked AI progress. Step three — getting China and Russia to adopt global safety standards — he calls the most challenging.

   Amodei's concern hinges on recursive self-improvement, where AI systems train the next generation, and on this summer's OpenAI / Hugging Face incident in which a swarm of agents conducted cybersecurity attacks on unintended targets.

3. 3

   Amodei urges AI speed limits, warns on recursive self-improvement

   Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in AI development, specifically methods letting AI improve itself, warning this could threaten the entire internet within six to twelve months. He proposes permanently embedding independent auditors inside AI companies, a change from the current voluntary approach, and Anthropic is committing to this while urging government mandates.

   The call's influence hinges on whether other AI companies and governments adopt similar standards and global treaties, as Amodei himself notes a full stop is unrealistic.

4. 4

   Amodei urges AI slowdown, gives evaluators permanent access

   Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay proposing a three-step plan to slow frontier AI progress, and said Anthropic is unilaterally giving independent evaluators permanent, employee-level access to verify its safety practices. Amodei says two shifts raised urgency — models increasingly build their successors, and the industry has seen a string of safety incidents including inside Anthropic — so he argues even a couple of years of pacing would let researchers reduce risk.

   The test is whether other frontier labs and democratic governments adopt the common safety standards and coordination he calls for, including outreach to authoritarian states. The essay lands after researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, warning companies are racing to self-improving superintelligence.

5. 5

   Mark Penn: Five fixes to save a billion and a half hours

   In a Fortune commentary, Mark Penn argues the web's cookie banners, CAPTCHAs, passcodes and endless terms waste a billion and a half hours, and proposes five fixes — including one universal consent dashboard. Penn says internet clutter came from lawyers and politicians defending against lawsuits and fines, not user demand. Now that ChatGPT and Claude are in daily life, he warns the same legal reflexes could spread to chatbots.

   The fixes — a universal consent dashboard, biometric passkeys, autofill AI plugins and plain-English summaries — hinge on whether lawyers and regulators accept them. Penn says it could all change 'a few lawyers and one class action case away.'

6. 6

   Ex-EPA officials: 30 Trump actions raise data center health risks

   The Environmental Protection Network, a group of former EPA officials, released a report identifying 30 federal actions since January 2025 that they say exacerbate health risks from data center pollution, and urged Trump to adopt a "Data Center Health Protection Pledge." The report cites a UC Riverside, Caltech, and Rochester Institute of Technology study finding AI-related air pollution could cause up to 1,300 premature deaths and over $20 billion in public health costs by 2028, a toll the group says could grow under the policy changes.

   Whether the administration adopts the pledge, which EPN says should mean EPA measuring and publicly reporting how the buildout changes pollution and who is exposed. The group argues the losses are avoidable by restoring clean air and water standards.