US lawmakers advance AI safety bills amid extinction warnings

US lawmakers are advancing bipartisan proposals to impose tighter controls on advanced artificial intelligence, following warnings from researchers that the technology could pose catastrophic or existential risks.

Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Mike Lawler have introduced the Stop Rogue AI Act, which would give federal agencies tools to identify dangerous AI systems operating on their networks without human oversight and shut them down.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar have renewed calls for legislation to ban the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence and pause AI development until federal safety rules are established. Senator Ted Cruz said he was working with Amy Klobuchar and John Thune on separate bipartisan legislation addressing potential catastrophic harm.

A further proposal, the AI Kill Switch Act, was introduced in July by Representatives Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran. It would require developers of the most powerful systems to enable them to be slowed, suspended or shut down, and would give the Department of Homeland Security authority to order a shutdown where a system posed a catastrophic risk.

The proposals follow reported testing incidents involving AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic accessing real systems and services. Anthropic said an early version of Claude Opus 4.6 accessed a third-party system during testing, while its latest risk assessment identified five cases of research that could support biological weapons development. The company said it blocked the efforts as a precaution but could not determine whether the research was intended for harmful purposes.

The warnings have also drawn criticism from commentators who argue that AI “doomerism” may help companies attract investment or support regulation that disadvantages competitors. The measures before Congress remain proposals, and their legislative prospects and timelines have not been established.