Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation Wednesday to create a new Department of Artificial Intelligence and ban artificial superintelligence until AI can be regulated in a way to ensure it doesn’t destroy humanity. But the timing of Sanders’ new Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act is a bit awkward, if only because President Donald Trump wants to rename AI itself as “Super Intelligence.”
“When you are racing towards a cliff, you don’t just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes. When the future of humanity is at stake, we cannot let a handful of Big Tech CEOs write their own rules,” Sen. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, said in a statement posted online.
“Scientists have been clear: AI is an existential threat to humanity. It must be treated as such,” continued Sanders. “This legislation will permanently ban the development of artificial superintelligence and would put in place an immediate pause on advanced AI development until we have clear safety rules in place — developed by the most knowledgeable scientists in our country. Congress must act now before it is too late.”
The legislation is being introduced in the House by Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat from Texas, who warns that international agreements are needed to ensure AI doesn’t go rogue and wipe out all humans. The bill would impose a penalty of up to 20 years in prison for violating the bill, which the legislators note is similar to the punishment for unlawfully developing nuclear weapons.
President Trump gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, rambling about many issues and threatening the annihilation of Iran. As part of the speech, Trump announced that he would be renaming artificial intelligence as Super Intelligence (SI) and made a whiny plea for other nations to follow suit. And that’s probably going to cause some confusion because he’s not talking about precisely the same thing that Trump is talking about, assuming the president knows what he’s talking about at all.
The way that the proposed bill from Sanders defines superintelligence, according to the press release, is “an AI that exceeds human cognitive performance and capabilities across most domains, or has sufficient capabilities to destroy or disempower humanity, including by overthrowing the federal government.” That’s slightly different from all of AI, which Trump wants to rename as Super Intelligence.
The new bill would create a cabinet-level position for the Department of Artificial Intelligence, ensuring the Secretary of such an agency had direct access to the president. But it’s pretty clear that such a position would only be taken seriously once Trump is gone—presumably on Jan. 20, 2029, assuming he doesn’t attempt another self-coup to stay in office.
Trump loves to rename things, as we’ve seen with Lake America, Gulf of America, and the Department of “War.” But he also loves to slap his own name on things, like the Kennedy Center, the Palm Beach Airport, the Institute of Peace, and so-called Trump Accounts.
Trump’s obsession with rebranding things we’ve long known by their current name will likely go into overdrive after the midterms. His aides have reportedly been working on other things that could be renamed in his honor, including Ford’s Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, according to MS NOW. Why would Trump want his name associated with a place where an abolitionist like Lincoln was killed? It’s probably not because he likes Lincoln. This is, after all, the guy who called immigrants from Somalia “garbage,” used to keep a book of Adolf Hitler’s speeches next to his bed, and literally praised Hitler, according to his former chief of staff.
What’s in a name? Everything when you’re living in an increasingly authoritarian country.
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