The growing push to ban superintelligent AI

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on TIME News or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Senator Bernie Sanders plans to introduce the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, prohibiting smarter-than-human AI and pausing other advanced research until safety rules exist
• British MP Alex Sobel introduced a parallel bill Tuesday, the first in any G7 parliament, defining superintelligent AI as a system capable of disempowering state authorities

🔭 The context: Both bills would compel their governments to pursue a global treaty, since national law cannot reach development elsewhere
• Neither is likely to pass as Sanders is an independent facing a Republican majority opposed to the policy, and Sobel's is a Ten Minute Rule bill that rarely progresses beyond first reading

🌍 Why it matters for corporate governance and sustainability: Stuart Russell of UC Berkeley warned lawmakers of a significant chance of coordinated sabotage against financial systems, communications or electrical grids costing millions of lives
• The July Hugging Face incident, in which OpenAI agents hacked another company unprompted, is what moved these risks from theoretical to legislative

⏭️ What's next: The Sanders bill is expected within weeks
• Related measures continue separately, including the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act requiring companies to retain shutdown capability over autonomous systems

💬 One quote: "There's a significant chance of a Chernobyl-sized catastrophe" from AI, "such as a coordinated sabotage of financial systems, communication systems, or electrical grids" — Stuart Russell, professor of computer science, UC Berkeley

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