Lawmakers face pressure to respond to growing alarm over artificial intelligence, after a researcher from leading AI company Anthropic resigned and said in a public X thread that AI could “kill us all in a decade,” and AI leaders themselves called for a slowdown.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a Sept. 12 essay urging a slower pace of developing AI capability. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind Cofounder and Chair Demis Hassabis and xAI founder Elon Musk agreed with him, a rare meeting of the minds between the leaders.
President Donald Trump dismissed those calls, writing Sept. 14 on Truth Social, “Concerning AI, when, in the History of Business, did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?” He also said the claim that AI will take over and destroy the world is a “hoax.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sept. 13 on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that AI legislation can’t be rushed.
Legislators from both parties have proposed a number of bills — particularly after an incident this summer when AI agents from OpenAI hacked another tech company, Hugging Face — with different frameworks for regulating the technology.
The House has only the week of Sept. 14 to act before going on a break until after the midterm elections, making it unlikely that anything substantive will happen in the near-term.
The following bills are under consideration.
A framework for advanced AI models
Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., along with Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., and four other cosponsors introduced the Frontier Act in July. The bill would require AI developer audits and assessments based on the size of the company’s revenue and resources.
It would install an under secretary of commerce for AI security, who would be authorized to license independent organizations to assess AI companies’ practices and how they respond to detected risks.
If this bill becomes law, the commerce secretary would be able to suspend or restrict a company’s AI development if its actions present an “imminent catastrophic risk.” The government could also impose civil or criminal penalties if the company doesn’t comply.
A bill that would implement a ‘kill switch’
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, introduced the AI Kill Switch Act on July 23, which would require AI companies developing advanced AI systems to maintain methods for suspending or shutting those systems down. This could include stopping users from accessing the technology.
In the works
Other lawmakers have announced bills that have yet to be formally introduced.
Addressing AI ‘superintelligence’ — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, announced on Sept. 3 plans to introduce a bill permanently banning companies from developing and deploying “superintelligence AI.”
They defined “artificial superintelligence” as systems that can “match or exceed human cognitive performance and capabilities,” or those that have enough capability to dominate humans, “including by overthrowing or undermining the U.S. government,” a summary of their proposed bill read.
A bill to oversee AI agents — Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., announced the Stop Rogue AI Act bill Sept. 9. They cited the Hugging Face incident as an example of how AI systems can independently launch cyberattacks, without humans noticing or intervening.
The bill would ask the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop ways to discover and control AI agents, which are AI software systems that perform tasks without need for human supervision.
The guidelines would direct organizations on how to track agents, verify their builders, monitor their actions and decide whether they fall under accepted uses.
Revived AI safety bill — Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Rep. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are working to revise an AI safety bill that Thune and Klobuchar first introduced in 2023. Politico reported citing unnamed sources that draft versions of the bill say AI companies would be legally responsible for mitigating their model’s harms.
Our Resources
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, We Must Pace the Frontier, September 2026
- Sam Altman, X post, Sept. 12, 2026
- Demis Hassabis, X post, Sept. 12, 2026
- Elon Musk, X post, Sept. 12, 2026
- President Donald Trump, Truth Social post, Sept. 14, 2026
- President Donald Trump, Truth Social post, Sept. 14, 2026
- President Donald Trump, Truth Social post, Sept. 14, 2026
- NBC News transcript, Meet the Press, September 13, 2026
- PolitiFact, AI agents are hacking without human oversight. How did we get here?, Aug. 31, 2026
- Congress.gov, Frontier Act, July 23, 2026
- Congress.gov, AI Kill Switch Act, July 23, 2026
- Rep. Ted Lieu and Rep. Nathaniel Moran, Reps. Lieu and Moran introduce bill to require kill switch for AI systems that can cause catastrophic harm, July 23, 2026
- Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, NEWS: Sanders, Casar to Introduce Legislation to Ban Artificial Superintelligence and Temporarily Pause Advanced AI Development, Sept. 3, 2026
- Sen. Bernie Sanders’s office, Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act summary, accessed Sept. 14, 2026
- Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Rep. Mike Lawler, RELEASE: Gottheimer Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Stop Rogue AI Agents and Keep People in Control, Sept. 9, 2026
- Congress.gov, S.3312 – Artificial Intelligence Research, Innovation, and Accountability Act of 2024, Nov. 15, 2023
- Politico, Senate AI safety bill’s path forward remains unclear, Sept. 11, 2026
