Bills to ban superintelligent AI advance in the UK and US

Bills seeking to ban so-called superintelligent AI are gaining momentum on both sides of the Atlantic, Time reports, after a summer of cyberattacks pushed AI up the political agenda. On Tuesday, British lawmaker Alex Sobel introduced in the House of Commons what he said was the first bill in any G7 parliament seeking to ban superintelligence. The bill defines superintelligent AI as a system that could disempower state authorities and would give the state new powers to monitor and restrict systems that may be "precursors" to superintelligence. Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders announced plans to introduce the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would prohibit the development of smarter-than-human AI systems and temporarily pause all other advanced AI research until new safety rules are established. His office says the bill is expected in the coming weeks. Both bills would also compel their governments to pursue a global treaty banning superintelligent AI development anywhere in the world. The campaign group ControlAI wrote the U.K. bill and consulted on the U.S. one. "A national bill does not solve the international problem where superintelligence can be developed somewhere else," said its founder Andrea Miotti. "The only way to address that is via international agreements between countries." The measures would affect frontier AI developers directly, though neither has yet passed.