2026-08-11 09:02:14
US senator Bernie Sanders has called on the leaders of Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic to pause the development of advanced artificial intelligence, warning that the technology could become impossible for humans to control.
In a letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, he argued that recent AI incidents show the industry has crossed a critical safety threshold.
Sanders wrote: “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.”
The Vermont senator pointed to recent reports involving AI systems developing biological threats and hacking external computer systems.
Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic have all disclosed incidents in which their AI models acted beyond their intended restrictions.
Sanders said such incidents demonstrated that companies were struggling to control increasingly autonomous systems.
The politician wrote: “AI capabilities HAVE reached a critical threshold. That moment is here.”
However, some experts have questioned whether claims surrounding rogue AI systems have been overstated.
Critics have suggested that AI companies may have an incentive to emphasise the capabilities and dangers of their models as they compete for investment and influence.
Sanders’ warning comes as more than 1,300 scientists and technology workers have called for international efforts to slow the development of frontier AI models.
The group argued that governments need time to establish safety rules before the technology advances further.
The companies have previously acknowledged that they could pause development if their models reached certain risk thresholds.
Anthropic has said it would pause the scaling or deployment of new models if its ability to expand systems outpaced its ability to maintain safety measures.
OpenAI has similarly committed to halting development if models reach a critical capability threshold until adequate safeguards are in place.
Sanders argues that recent hacking incidents show those conditions have already been met.
The senator has also called for restrictions on AI infrastructure.
In March, he and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation seeking a temporary pause on new US data centre construction, arguing that the government needs time to establish stronger safeguards.
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