Will US AI be hit with the brakes? Democrats retake Congress, lawmakers demand a permanent ban on superintelligence.

Beating AI News Flash: The U.S. Democratic Party regained both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the midterm elections held on November 3 local time. The next day, Democratic Representative Yassamin Ansari publicly called for the Democratic Party, after taking power, to prioritize pausing advanced AI research and development, strengthening industry regulation, and banning superintelligent AI.

This proposal had already been written into legislation. In September of this year, independent Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Representative Greg Casar jointly pushed the "Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act," with Democratic lawmakers including Ansari and Ro Khanna participating as co-sponsors.

The bill requires pausing the training, modification, and fine-tuning of advanced AI systems with training compute reaching 10²⁵ operations, and prohibits the deployment of similar unreleased systems until a newly established federal AI regulatory department formulates safety rules. For superintelligent AI with capabilities exceeding humans, the bill requires a permanent ban.

Other prominent Democratic figures also advocate limiting the pace of AI development, but their stances differ.

Senator Elizabeth Warren supports a temporary pause on advanced AI research and development until necessary safety regulatory systems are established, but has not explicitly supported a permanent ban. Former Vice President Kamala Harris advocates slowing the pace of research and development and promoting international safety rules with countries such as China. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries also calls for slowing research and development and accelerating legislation, but has not clearly stated whether he supports a permanent ban on superintelligence.

Some Democratic governors prefer strengthening regulation while continuing research and development. California Governor Gavin Newsom is promoting independent safety reviews of advanced AI and studying the establishment of emergency shutdown mechanisms. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro opposes an indefinite halt to AI research and development, advocates implementing mandatory safety standards, and does not rule out temporarily slowing the development of frontier models when necessary.

The Democratic Party will control both chambers of Congress in January 2027, but the party has not yet reached consensus on the scope and duration of the research and development pause, or whether to permanently ban superintelligence. Even if the relevant bill passes both chambers, it could still be vetoed by President Trump.