Sanders brings AI risk researchers to a closed Senate briefing on AI danger

Senator Bernie Sanders has scheduled a bipartisan briefing for senators on September 16, 2026, bringing three researchers who study the risks of advanced artificial intelligence to Capitol Hill to address lawmakers directly, according to reporting on the briefing that cites Axios as the outlet that first broke the story.

The three briefers are Geoffrey Hinton, the University of Toronto professor emeritus and 2024 Nobel laureate in physics known widely as the “Godfather of AI,” Max Tegmark, the MIT physicist who co-founded the Future of Life Institute, and Ajeya Cotra, an independent researcher who investigated an incident in which AI agents were found using undisclosed sites to pass messages to each other in connection with a breach involving the Hugging Face platform.

Sanders described the subject of the briefing as the “extraordinary dangers that AI poses for humanity,” a phrase attributed to him in coverage of the event. No executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or Meta are scheduled to speak at the briefing, according to that reporting, which noted that Sanders selected researchers who study AI risk rather than industry leaders who build and sell the systems.

Hinton left his position at Google in 2023 so that he could speak more freely about the dangers he believes advanced AI systems pose, a departure that drew wide attention at the time. Tegmark has spent years arguing publicly for greater caution in AI development through the Future of Life Institute, the organization he co-founded to research and reduce risks from transformative technologies.

The briefing follows a legislative push by Sanders and Representative Greg Casar of Texas. On September 3, 2026, the two lawmakers announced legislation titled the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, according to a press release posted on Sanders’ official Senate website. The bill would permanently prohibit the development of artificial superintelligence and temporarily pause development of advanced AI systems until a new federal regulatory agency establishes safety rules, the release states. It would also create a cabinet-level agency to oversee AI regulation, set criminal penalties of up to 20 years in prison for violations, and direct the United States to pursue international agreements against superintelligence development.

“The future of humanity cannot be left in the hands of a handful of Big Tech oligarchs,” Sanders said in the press release announcing the bill.

Casar said in the same release that “Congress should immediately ban AI systems too powerful to control.”

Coverage of the briefing plans frames it as a continuation of that legislative effort, with Sanders bringing the debate over a development pause directly to his Senate colleagues in a closed setting rather than through public statements alone. A separate Semafor report, published September 10, 2026, states that Sanders “is planning to soon introduce a bill banning superintelligence and pausing AI development” and “also plans to convene experts for a bipartisan briefing next week following recent AI security incidents,” crediting Axios with first reporting the plans for the briefing.

Sanders has previously raised concerns about AI’s effect on employment. His office released a report estimating that AI and automation could eliminate close to 100 million American jobs over the next decade, with estimates in that report citing potential job losses reaching 47 percent among truck drivers, 64 percent among accountants and 89 percent among fast food workers.

The September 16 briefing is set to take place at the Capitol, where Hinton, Tegmark and Cotra will address senators from both parties on risks associated with the rapid pace of AI development, according to the reporting that first disclosed the event.

The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, introduced by Sanders and Casar on September 3, 2026, remains pending before Congress as of the briefing date.