Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari called for the first priority of the new Congress to be to pause the development of advanced AI, regulate the industry, and ban artificial superintelligence. The message was released on Nov. 4 following the Democratic victory in the midterm elections.

The legislative proposal
Ansari's stance connects to the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026, introduced in September by Rep. Greg Casar as H.R. 10538 and by Sen. Bernie Sanders as S. 5493. The projects seek to create a cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence that oversees border models, sets security rules and reviews models before deployment.

The project defines advanced AI by a computational threshold of at least 10^25 training operations and would pause its development until the new department is operational and issues standards. It defines superintelligence as systems that exceed human cognitive capacity in most fields or that can disempower humanity.

Sanctions and scope
The text would include penalties of up to 20 years in prison for individuals who fail to comply with certain provisions and penalties such as the "corporate death penalty" for companies that evade the rule. Prohibitions are also contemplated for systems that help create superintelligence, such as those capable of self-improvement or evasion of supervision.

The bill is still in committees: the House version in the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate version in the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. There is no federal ban in place.

NBC's output data indicated that AI and data centers were a crucial or major factor for 56% of midterm voters, fueling local regulatory pressure on energy infrastructure and permitting.

Sources: Tom's Hardware, The Standard, TechRadar