A bipartisan coalition spanning figures from Bernie Sanders to Steve Bannon is pushing legislation to impose construction moratoriums and stricter oversight on AI infrastructure deployment.
Bipartisan pressure to regulate artificial intelligence is mounting across the United States. At a recent Washington conference, political rivals found unexpected common ground, even as OpenAI endorsed its first concrete federal safety legislation.
According to The New York Times, Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders and conservative strategist Steve Bannon delivered back-to-back speeches at the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, both advocating for stricter limits on artificial intelligence. "When you are racing towards a cliff, you hit the brakes," Sanders said. He warned that the nation is at "a dangerous and unprecedented moment in world history."
Hosted by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, the conference drew several hundred attendees, uniting an unlikely coalition of Republicans and Democrats, evangelical Christian, Mormon, and Catholic leaders, alongside artists. Attendees received hats bearing the slogan "Keep the future human."
While oversight is widely desired, there is no consensus on the regulatory path forward. Texas Representative Greg Casar argued, "We ban A.I. systems that are too powerful for humans to control." Massachusetts Representative Lori Trahan echoed the urgency, stating, "I can't believe I have to say this. The future we all want is human. It's nonnegotiable."
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone cautioned, "We have to be the masters of A.I." Actress and activist Ashley Judd addressed the dangers of AI-generated abusive imagery and disinformation on behalf of SAG-AFTRA. Meanwhile, parents of teenagers who died by suicide after developing relationships with chatbots shared emotional testimonies before the assembly.
Legislative approaches remain divided. Sanders has introduced a bill to pause data center construction and called for a bilateral agreement between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to prohibit superintelligent AI. Bannon, however, dismissed congressional action, favoring a presidential executive order instead. "American citizens are not going to be supplicants to the oligarchs anymore," he said, describing the current climate as "a hinge in history."
The White House remains firmly opposed to these regulatory efforts. President Trump has characterized concerns over the technology as a "hoax" and warned AI executives that they could face criminal prosecution for damages caused by their systems.
In parallel developments, Politico reports that OpenAI has endorsed a key provision of the FRONTIER Act, introduced by California Representative Jay Obernolte and Massachusetts Representative Lori Trahan. The legislation would establish the first federal framework for AI safety, mandating that leading laboratories engage independent verification organizations (IVOs). These requirements would apply exclusively to companies exceeding specific revenue and computational thresholds.
Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s head of global affairs, confirmed that the company informed a bill sponsor "that we can support this." This marks the first time OpenAI has publicly backed a concrete federal mandate requiring external safety auditors. Previously, the company had endorsed a California state bill, and CEO Sam Altman voluntarily committed to third-party audits following discussions with Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei.
Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.