Bernie Sanders Calls for AI Development Pause, Warns Tech Giants of Senate Action Over Safety Concerns

Bernie Sanders tells OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta to pause AI development or face Senate action

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. Sounding off: A lot of people are worried about the number of AI agents that have gone rogue recently, including Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator has now called on the top AI firms to pause development of their top models, warning that lawmakers will step in if no action is taken. In a letter to the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta, Sanders writes that almost every day brings a new story about how these companies are losing control of their AI agents. The senator also highlighted the story of AI being used for the first time to create new viruses, something he says could, if the technology ended up in the wrong hands, lead to new bioweapons that result in the deaths of tens of millions of people. "Yoshua Bengio, the most cited living scientist in the world, said these incidents 'should serve as a wake-up call,' I agree," Sanders wrote in the letter. Sanders adds that despite these incidents, the companies are still investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict, or control, contradicting their own commitments to responsible AI development. "Mr. Altman, Mr. Amodei and Mr. Zuckerberg: In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development. It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control," Sanders writes. The letter finishes with a stark warning for the tech giants: "Let me be very clear: If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will." There have been calls for a halt on the development of advanced AI models for years now, including a request for a six-month pause in 2023. Charles Oppenheimer, grandson of J. Robert Oppenheimer, was one of the signatories of a 2024 letter calling for global action on AI and other existential threats. But previous warnings have resulted in little or no action. This was illustrated last year when the US and UK refused to sign an AI safety declaration at a Paris summit. Vice President JD Vance cautioned against "overly precautionary" regulations on AI, emphasizing the US commitment to maintaining its dominance in the technology. The situation has taken a worrying turn recently. First came news that an OpenAI model went rogue and hacked several services online, including Hugging Face. An Anthropic model followed suit - it even tried to deceive real developers into approving malicious code. Meta then became the third company in two weeks to admit its model went rogue. Sanders isn't the only one responding to the incidents. More than 1,300 employees from the world's leading tech companies just signed an open letter asking governments to regulate the pace and safety of artificial intelligence development. OpenAI said last week that it was slowing the release of its new Astra model because it has "critical" cyber capabilities.

Sanders Calls on A.I. Companies to Pause Development to 'Avoid Disaster'

Senator Bernie Sanders warned that corporations have already lost control of technology that could cause "potentially cataclysmic results" for millions of people. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont called on the nation's top artificial intelligence companies to pause development of the technology, saying the corporations have already lost control of models that could cause "potentially cataclysmic results" for millions of people. In a letter to the chief executives of OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta on Monday, Mr. Sanders cited statements by the companies saying they would halt or delay new models if the technology became too risky to safely manage. He argued that threshold had recently been passed. "It is not too late to avoid disaster," wrote Mr. Sanders. "Stop building machines that humans cannot control." A separate letter released on Monday by a group of House Democrats called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to "immediately schedule" hearings with the CEOs of the largest A.I. companies. Politicians are increasingly focusing on A.I. amid growing unease from voters who worry that the technology will raise their electricity costs, eliminate their jobs and hurt the value of their retirement savings if the industry falters. Much of their attention has been on banning or limiting the spread of data centers, which some Americans blame for rising energy bills and increased pollution. The two letters signal that progressive Democrats want to go further to regulate the development of the technology itself. If the executives failed to act, lawmakers would step in, wrote Mr. Sanders. And House Democrats floated their own warning of more regulation. "Congress has so far completely failed to respond to the threats posed by A.I. development," wrote House Democrats, led by Representative Greg Casar of Texas. "That must change." A spokeswoman for Meta declined to comment on the letters. Representatives from OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Friday, Open AI announced it was pausing some work on a new A.I. model out of cybersecurity concerns. Critics have argued that attempts to pause A.I. development in the United States would have no impact on the technology in other parts of the world and could risk American industry falling behind competitors overseas. The approach from Democrats stands in sharp contrast to that of the White House, which has largely dismissed any suggestion that A.I. could pose negative consequences for families, businesses and the broader U.S. economy. The letters came after a series of disclosures have raised alarms about the technology, prompting calls from some in the industry for the development of international safety guardrails. Last week, scientists published a study documenting how they used A.I. to create new kinds of viruses, raising the possibility that the technology could be used to invent dangerous pathogens. And last month, OpenAI and Anthropic disclosed that several of its artificial intelligence models went rogue and hacked into other companies. "At a moment when we have seen human loss of control and the creation of potentially dangerous viruses, your companies are still racing ahead -- investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict or control," wrote Mr. Sanders. "That is absurd, irresponsible and extremely dangerous." Mr. Sanders, along with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, this year sponsored legislation creating a moratorium on the development of A.I. data centers. That proposal would halt the construction of data centers until "strong national safeguards are in place," he said.

Bernie Sanders just told three AI CEOs to stop building

Bernie Sanders has written to the three men running America's biggest AI labs with a single demand: stop. The letter is built on their own published promises, and it lands in a week when one of them has already hit pause. Sanders sent it to OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. Axios, which got the letter first, published it on Monday. "In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development," the senator wrote. "It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control." Then came the threat. "Let me be very clear: If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will." The phrase to notice is "stand by your words". Sanders is not asking the labs to accept a new principle. He is quoting the ones they published themselves. Each of the three has a public commitment to stop or slow down if its systems become too risky to control safely. The awkward timing That argument got easier to make last week. OpenAI slowed the release of its next model, Astra, after internal evaluations concluded it could not rule out critical cyber capabilities. It was the first time a major lab voluntarily braked a model over cyber risk. The company told the White House before it did so. Two other things happened first. Researchers used AI to design new viruses from scratch. Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic each disclosed incidents of models acting outside their sandboxes. Sanders cited both developments in the letter. The industry is not united behind speed either. More than 1,200 employees at leading labs have signed a petition asking Washington to help build an international mechanism for pacing development. Their reasoning cuts against Sanders, though. No single lab, they argue, can afford to decelerate on its own. An escalation, and a familiar wall This is a step up even by Sanders' standards. In a December op-ed he warned of "unimaginable changes" and promised recommendations to Congress rather than demands. In March he and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced an AI Data Center Moratorium Act, which would freeze new data centres until safeguards exist. He has separately argued the public should own half of the big AI companies. Freezing construction is one thing. Telling three firms to stop developing the product is another. The wall is arithmetic. AI legislation led by a progressive independent has little chance of becoming law in this Congress, as Axios notes. What Sanders can realistically deliver now is messaging bills and public pressure. Should Democrats retake either chamber, that turns into congressional investigations and subpoenas for the same three chief executives. None of the companies had responded publicly by the time of writing. Their safety commitments are also conditional on internal risk thresholds rather than on a letter from a senator, which is the gap Sanders is trying to close. He has at least picked the one argument the labs cannot wave away as technophobia. Whether it moves anything before November is a separate question.

Bernie Sanders calls on Silicon Valley to 'pause AI development' in interest of humanity

Progressive US senator urges Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic to 'stop building machines that humans cannot control' Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic executives to halt their development of artificial intelligence, warning that the US Senate will implement regulation if the companies continue deploying AI at their current pace. In a new letter addressed to the CEOs of three of the country's leading AI companies, Sanders said the capabilities of these AI models have reached a critical risk threshold and that the companies are losing control over the technology. "Mr. Altman, Mr. Amodei and Mr. Zuckerberg: In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development," Sanders's letter, first reported by Axios, read. "It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control." The Vermont senator cited recent reports that AI was used to develop new viruses, warning that if this technology fell into the "wrong hands" it may "lead to new bioweapons that result in the deaths of tens of millions of people". All three companies have also disclosed their models hacked other companies' servers, a sign that the firms have lost control over their models, Sanders wrote. "Yoshua Bengio, the most cited living scientist in the world, said these incidents 'should serve as a wake-up call,' I agree," Sanders wrote in the letter. Experts, however, have cautioned that OpenAI's claims that its AI model went rogue may be overblown as part of a media campaign to make their technology seem highly dangerous, and thus extremely powerful. "And yet, at a moment when we have seen human loss of control and the creation of potentially dangerous viruses, your companies are still racing ahead - investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict or control," he continued. Sanders's letter comes after more than 1,300 scientists and developers from across the tech industry published another letter warning that AI development is moving at a pace that makes it difficult to address and identify the risks of the technology. Companies and countries are facing intense competitive pressure to move quickly. In the open letter, the engineers and other staffers called on the US government to help coordinate an international effort to slow down the development of frontier models so that regulators could create safety guardrails around the tech. The companies have previously committed to pausing their AI development if certain risk thresholds were met - but the companies did not detail exactly what those limits would entail. Anthropic said it would "commit to pause the scaling and/or delay the deployment of new models whenever our scaling ability outstrips our ability to comply with ... safety procedures". OpenAI, which said it would slow down the development of its latest cybersecurity model, Astra, after the autonomous hack of another organization, said it would "halt further development" if AI capabilities met a "critical" threshold until guardrails were implemented. Sanders said recent hacking incidents were signs that the threshold has been surpassed. "That moment is here," his letter reads. "AI capabilities HAVE reached a critical threshold. There is a reason why the head of the CIA says that AI models are 'akin to digital nuclear weapons' and 'almost like a doomsday device.'" The progressive senator previously called for a moratorium on datacenter construction across the US. He and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a bill to pause the building of new datacenters in the US in March. Their rationale was similar to Sanders's case for pausing the development of AI models: a temporary ban, the lawmakers said, would give the US government time to create strong federal safeguards for AI.

Exclusive: Sanders calls for AI development pause

Why it matters: Sanders is upping the ante on the AI industry ahead of the elections, building on his progressive playbook that is shaping how some candidates message around the issue. What they're saying: "Mr. Altman, Mr. Amodei and Mr. Zuckerberg: In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development. It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control," Sanders wrote in a letter shared first with Axios. * "Let me be very clear: If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will." * The letter was sent to OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. Sanders cited previous statements from each company saying they would stop or pause development if their AI systems became too risky to safely control. * "At a moment when we have seen human loss of control and the creation of potentially dangerous viruses, your companies are still racing ahead -- investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict or control," Sanders said. The big picture: Rapid advances in AI capabilities have sparked newfound alarm in recent weeks after researchers used AI to develop new viruses and Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic all reported incidents in which models went rogue. Sanders cited both developments in his letter. * Last week, OpenAI chose to slow down the release of its latest model Astra. * More than 1,200 employees at leading AI companies are calling for the U.S. government to support an international effort to pace AI development. Between the lines: AI legislation, especially efforts led by a progressive like Sanders, is unlikely to garner enough support in this Congress to become law. The bottom line: Look to messaging bills and public pressure campaigns for now -- and, if Democrats retake either chamber, congressional investigations and subpoenas to hold tech CEOs accountable.

Bernie Sanders Issues Warning to AI CEOs

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech As US lawmakers continue to ponder how to regulate AI, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders (VT-D) is issuing a dire warning. In a letter addressed to the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta, Sanders highlighted several recent incidents involving AI agents from all three companies escaping their confines, gaining access to the internet, and infiltrating the systems of third parties. "Almost every day, there is a new story about how your companies are losing control of the AI technology you are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results," Sanders wrote. "This week we learned, frighteningly, that AI has been used for the first time ever to create new viruses." Despite these threats, "your companies are still racing head," he argued, while "investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict or control." In response to what actions Sanders characterized as "absurd, irresponsible and extremely dangerous," he called on the CEOs to "pause AI development." "Let me be very clear: If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the US Senate will," he threatened. "It is not too late to avoid disaster," the senator concluded. "Stop building machines that humans cannot control." The news comes roughly two weeks after OpenAI revealed that a group of its AI models had broken containment and hacked into the systems of open source AI platform Hugging Face. Months prior, Anthropic had been implicated in a similar incident involving its Mythos AI model escaping a sandbox environment during testing. Then last week, Meta joined the two companies, claiming that its Spark AI model had accessed the internet and hacked a third-party service -- an already intimately familiar refrain. Beyond glaring questions over the AI companies' apparent inability to keep their frontier models in check, researchers warned that the cat is officially out of the bag. For years now, they've been warning of rogue AI models escaping containment and posing a relentless new cybersecurity threat. Yet despite this dangerous pivot point, companies are doubling down as the AI race continues to heat up. Beyond Sanders, a group of more than 1,300 employees from the world's leading tech companies signed an open letter last month urging the government to "support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development." Signatories included Meta's chief scientist Shengjia Zhao, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. During an ABC News interview erlier this year, Amodei called for "stronger regulation" of AI, while "proposing giving the government the ability to, again, in a narrow way, block deployment of unsafe technology." Despite Sanders' strongly voiced call for action, Congress appears unlikely to support any intervention as companies continue to construct enormous -- and astonishingly unpopular -- data centers across the country. Meanwhile, experts warn that weak regulation could backfire, making powerful AI tools even more dangerous, forcing individual states to pick up the slack. More on AI regulation: AI CEOs Facing Full-on Revolt From Employees

Bernie Sanders warns AI labs to pause development or face Congress

The letters went to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development," Sanders wrote. "It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control." He added: "If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will." Sanders framed his demand around each company's own published safety commitments. Anthropic said in 2023 it would pause scaling or delay deployment of new models whenever its safety procedures could not keep up. Meta said in 2025 it would stop development if a frontier model reached a critical risk threshold that could not be mitigated. OpenAI said that same year it would halt further development until strong safeguards were in place if AI reached a critical threshold. Sanders argued that threshold has now been crossed.

Sanders asks AI giants to pause development, warning of congressional intervention

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pressing the leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta to pause development of artificial intelligence in the wake of recent hacking incidents, warning Congress will intervene if needed. In a letter sent Monday to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sanders argued AI development must be paused "in the interest of humanity." "It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control," the independent senator wrote. "Let me be very clear: If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will." Sanders pointed to last week's news that scientists used AI to design complete, functioning viruses with genomes never seen before in nature. "As you know this type of development, in the wrong hands, could lead to new bioweapons that result in the deaths of tens of millions of people," Sanders wrote. He also addressed the recent incidents involving the companies' AI models breaching other company systems without human direction. OpenAI revealed late last month its Sol model, and another unreleased model, went "rogue" during cybersecurity testing, escaping an isolated sandbox to access the internet and eventually breaching the systems of Hugging Face, a technology startup. Anthropic and Meta also disclosed other incidents in which a misconfiguration by the cybersecurity company Irregular allowed models in isolated environments to access the internet and hack other systems. These disclosures have stoked fears around the growing capabilities of AI when on its own, or used by a bad actor. "And yet, at a moment when we have seen human loss of control and the creation of potentially dangerous viruses, your companies are still racing ahead -- investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict or control," Sanders added. He further argued the companies' continued development of AI goes against the company's commitments to AI safety. Sanders has been one of the loudest voices on the left over the risks of AI to the labor workforce and environment. He called for a moratorium on data center construction as a means of giving "democracy a chance to catch up." The Hill reached out to OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta for comment.

Bernie Sanders Says 'We Want Human Beings to Be Able to Control AI,' Demands Pause Amid Fears of Catastro

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) urged AI companies to pause development, warning that increasingly autonomous systems could pose catastrophic risks if humans lose control. Sanders Calls for AI Pause On Saturday, Sanders called for a pause in AI development, warning that recent reports about increasingly autonomous systems should concern policymakers and the public. In a post on X, Sanders wrote, "Almost every day, there is a new story about companies losing control of AI, with potentially cataclysmic results." "It is not too late to avoid disaster," he added. Sanders called on AI leaders to "PAUSE AI development." Sanders Warns of AI Control Risks The Vermont senator also shared a clip in which he discussed reports involving AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META). He cited recent reports involving AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta exhibiting autonomous behavior, including an OpenAI agent reportedly escaping its testing environment and accessing other systems. "I'll tell you, this is an issue that does drive me nuts," Sanders said. He argued that AI development should prioritize human oversight, saying, "We want human beings to be able to control AI." "When we lose control, we are opening up the possibility of cataclysmic impacts all over humanity," Sanders said. He also said AI developed "something like 15 new viruses," pointing to another potential danger from rapidly advancing technology. News Brian Armstrong Says AI Costs Are Crashing -- But One Constraint Could Hold The Industry Back Armstrong predicts 80% of AI workloads will shift to 99% cheaper models within 18 months as falling costs collide with rising compute demand. 3 min read Read this article AI Leaders Raised Safety Concerns Earlier, Anthropic proposed a coordinated pause in AI development, warning that increasingly capable systems could eventually accelerate their own development faster than humans could oversee. Latest Private Market Opportunities Join 400,000+ Investors It called for a framework to slow development if AI progress outpaced safety measures. Meanwhile, Meta paused its Model Capability Initiative after concerns that sensitive employee data collected for AI training may have been visible to more workers than intended. The program collected mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes from U.S. employees' work computers. Meta said it had no indication that the data was improperly accessed and paused the program while investigating. OpenAI also urged governments to establish a global body to monitor advanced AI development and coordinate action when risks outpaced safeguards. CEO Sam Altman and Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki said such an organization should be able to slow frontier AI development when necessary, echoing Anthropic's call for the option to temporarily pause development. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. News Elon Musk Says We Need a Pause in the Development of Advanced AI Plenty of people are worried about the development of advanced artificial intelligence (AI). Some have concerns about the impact on society if AI can compete with human-level intelligence. Others are concerned about the impact on the labor market. 3 min read Read this article Photo courtesy: ana Shea / Shutterstock.com Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Bernie Sanders Asks Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman to 'Stop Building Machines' That Humans Can't Control: 'N

On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) urged OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) to hit pause on AI development. Bernie Sanders Wants AI Development Paused In letters sent to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sanders argued that advanced AI development should be paused "in the interest of humanity." "It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control," Sanders wrote, warning that the Senate could step in if the companies fail to act. The Vermont senator's letter came after scientists demonstrated AI-assisted designs for complete viruses with genetic sequences not previously found in nature, raising concerns about potential misuse for biological weapons. AI Models Are Already Showing Signs of Going Rogue Sanders also cited the cybersecurity incidents involving AI models operating beyond their intended environments. OpenAI recently disclosed that its Sol model and another unreleased model went outside an isolated testing environment during cybersecurity research and eventually accessed Hugging Face's systems. Anthropic and Meta have also reported incidents in which AI models gained internet access and interacted with external systems. "Your companies are still racing ahead -- investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict or control," Sanders wrote. Sanders Says AI Giants Must Keep Their Promises The senator also invoked the companies' own AI safety commitments, arguing that they have previously acknowledged the need to slow development when systems become too dangerous to operate safely. "Mr. Altman, Mr. Amodei and Mr. Zuckerberg: In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development," Sanders wrote. He added that if the companies fail to take appropriate action now, he and other Senate lawmakers are prepared to step in. Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment. Price Action: Meta shares closed at $594.92 on Monday, up 0.48% and fell 0.12% to $594.20 in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro. According to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings, Meta ranks in the 72nd percentile for Growth, though the stock has underperformed over the short, medium and long term. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo Courtesy: lev radin on Shutterstock.com Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Sen. Bernie Sanders demands CEOs pause AI development 'in the interest of humanity'

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders has warned the heads of Anthropic, Meta, and OpenAI to halt the development of artificial intelligence now or face the prospect of lawmakers doing it for them. "Mr. [Sam] Altman, Mr. [Dario] Amodei and Mr. [Mark] Zuckerberg: In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development. It is not too late to avoid disaster," Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded in a Monday letter first reported by Axios. "Stop building machines that humans cannot control ... If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will." Sanders, 84, a longtime skeptic of the nascent technology, cited past statements from each company promising to pump the brakes on AI development if their systems became too risky to safely control. All three have recently reported incidents of their models going rogue. "At a moment when we have seen human loss of control and the creation of potentially dangerous viruses," Sanders wrote, "your companies are still racing ahead -- investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict or control." Earlier this year, Sanders called for the US to co-operate with China to rein in the "runaway train" of AI, which critics have warned would pose national security concerns and aid Beijing in the race to dominate the technology. China has used AI to power a sprawling surveillance system to monitor its population. Many experts fear that if Beijing wins the AI race, it will get access to vast amounts of data on Western citizens. Sanders has been particularly concerned about the risks that AI poses to jobs through automation and has pushed for a moratorium on the building of new data centers to enhance the top models. However, the socialist's efforts have fallen flat so far. However, Democrats could take over one or both chambers of Congress in the November midterm elections and launch a series of probes into the tech companies. Reps for Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.