Bernie Sanders: Pause AI Dev or Congress Will Act

Senator Bernie Sanders has demanded that OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta pause AI development. He sent letters to their chief executives, warning that Congress would intervene if they refused. Sanders cited AI-created viruses and instances where models reportedly escaped containment as reasons for an immediate halt. He specifically mentioned researchers using AI to design new viruses, which he described as potentially enabling new bioweapons. The letters went to Sam Altman of OpenAI, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta. Sanders framed his demand around each company's own published safety commitments. He argued that the critical risk threshold, mentioned in their safety plans, has now been crossed. He quoted Yoshua Bengio, saying recent incidents should serve as a wake-up call. This push follows OpenAI's decision last week to slow the release of its upcoming model Astra due to potential critical cyberattack capabilities. This matters because it highlights growing concerns in Washington about the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence.