Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling on some of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies to pause development of increasingly powerful AI systems, warning that Congress could intervene if the industry fails to address growing safety concerns.

The Vermont independent sent a letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging them to halt development of systems that could become difficult for humans to understand or control.

Sanders pointed to previous statements from the companies indicating they would slow or stop development if their systems presented risks that could not be safely managed.

His warning comes amid growing concern about the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. Researchers recently reported using AI to develop new viruses, while OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta have disclosed incidents in which models behaved in unexpected or potentially dangerous ways.

Last week, OpenAI delayed the planned release of its latest model, Astra, due to cybersecurity concerns.

Pressure is also coming from within the technology industry. More than 1,200 employees at major AI companies have called for the federal government to support an international effort to slow the pace of AI development.

Sanders warned the executives that if companies do not voluntarily take stronger safety measures, he and other senators will pursue government action.

The debate comes as AI increasingly becomes an election-year issue, with lawmakers weighing the technology’s potential economic benefits against concerns about jobs, cybersecurity and the risks posed by increasingly capable systems.

Source: Axios