Washington — The potential danger artificial intelligence poses to humans is “probably greater” than the threat posed by nuclear weapons, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Tuesday.
Sanders made the comments in an interview with CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns ahead of his speech at the Pro-Human Assembly conference on AI. Sanders said he plans to introduce legislation next week to permanently ban super intelligence, meaning AI smarter than humans and capable of escaping control. The bill would also pause advanced AI development. As a consequence for violations, Sanders is proposing 20 years in prison.
“Well, when you are dealing with a technology that can threaten the future of humanity and when you have laws hopefully that will be passed that say, ‘You know what, you can’t break the law.’ And if you do break a law which threatens the future of humanity, I don’t think it is wrong to say that there should be stiff penalties attached to that,” Sanders said.
Huey-Burns pointed out that those penalties are the same length as for those charged with illegal nuclear weapons development. Sanders said “the analogy is appropriate, exactly.”
“You want to develop a nuclear weapon that could threaten humanity, you should be punished,” Sanders said. “If you are moving forward on an AI development that could threaten humanity, you should be punished.”
Huey-Burns asked Sanders if he equates these two things — AI and nuclear weapons.
“No, I think AI, the potential danger of AI, is probably greater than nuclear weapons,” Sanders responded.
Sanders has been one of the most vocal opponents of rapid AI development, although in recent days, an increasing number of Republicans are speaking out, too. The Pro-Human Assembly featured staunch conservatives like Republican Rep. Chip Roy and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, as well as Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he thinks he and top AI company leaders will meet with President Trump at the White House “within the next week.”
The uptick in politicians’ conversations about the technology comes after AI researcher Jacob Coxon publicly resigned from Anthropic, which makes the AI app Claude, and said that artificial intelligence, while safe for people to use now, could one day threaten humanity as the technology grows more powerful. Other Anthropic employees agreed with his concerns. On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in the frontier AI labs, which was quickly echoed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk.
President Trump, however, dismissed concerns about rapid AI development, calling them a “HOAX,” and said all that’s needed is a strong and intelligence president.
Sanders said he hopes his colleagues in Congress understand the urgency of the situation.
“I hope that they understand that you gotta listen to the people who know the most, the people who have developed this technology, the people who are telling us, we are losing control of the technology we developed. And I think when you have a president, Mr. Trump, who talks about this as a hoax, I think it is embarrassingly stupid for the leader of this country to hold that position. You listen to the people who know the most, and you act accordingly.”
But Sanders said these tech CEOs can’t regulate themselves.
“Look, let’s be clear — they are pushing forward and have pushed forward for years to make as much money as they can,” he said. “And they have done very well. These are all the wealthiest people on the planet. And I think in a democratic society you’re going to have to have government intervening very strongly.”
Sanders said he does use AI himself for research, and said it has some benefits.
“There are benefits to AI,” he said. “And I think there are very positive benefits for healthcare and other areas. The goal is to make sure that we gain the benefits of AI for all of our people. And not just allow AI to be developed to benefit the pocketbooks of the wealthiest people on earth.”
