'Hit the Brakes': Bernie Sanders Demands Trump-Xi Treaty to Ban Superintelligence

US Senator Bernie Sanders has called on President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to negotiate a binding treaty to pause artificial intelligence development and ban superintelligence, following a rare alignment among top tech leaders on slowing down the technology.

The Independent leader's remarks came after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, and xAI chief executive Elon Musk jointly supported ‘pacing’ advance AI capabilities.

Sanders urged the world powers to act decisively at an upcoming bilateral AI summit, warning that the future of humanity remains at stake. "When you are racing towards a cliff, you don't just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes," Sanders wrote in a post on X, cautioning against the rise of an AI mind smarter than humans and operating beyond control.

What prompted the slowdown call

The debate gained momentum after Amodei published a blog post outlining acute threats linked to advanced models, including severe economic disruption, loss of system control, and misuse in biological terrorism or cyberattacks. Amodei noted that commercial pressure risked driving a race to the bottom, arguing that safety investments alone were insufficient without actively slowing down capability improvements.

Musk endorsed the stance on X, writing that "Dario is right." Altman similarly agreed, disclosing that OpenAI had discussed pacing growth internally and would commit to allowing independent evaluators employee-like access to inspect systems.

Legislative push for a total ban

Sanders, who introduced a bill earlier this month seeking a permanent ban on superintelligent AI, argued that mere commercial restraint is inadequate. His proposed legislation targets systems capable of autonomous operation outside human oversight.

While the full text of the bill remains unreleased, Sanders reiterated that global diplomacy between Washington and Beijing represents the only viable path to halt unchecked development before control is permanently lost.