S. 5493 — Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026

This section states congressional findings that leading experts have warned of catastrophic risks from unchecked artificial intelligence development, including a 10 to 20 percent chance of human extinction cited by Geoffrey Hinton, a 20 percent chance of annihilation cited by Elon Musk, and statements from Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Mustafa Suleyman, Max Tegmark, Stuart Russell, and others regarding loss of control, biological pathogen design, and civilizational suicide. It further notes that more than 1,300 AI scientists cosigned a July 2026 open letter on these risks and that Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI have called for slowing frontier AI development.

This section defines advanced artificial intelligence system as an AI trained on computing power of at least 10^25 operations, subject to annual adjustments by the Secretary to maintain equivalency. It defines artificial superintelligence as a system exceeding human performance across most domains or capable of planning and executing humanity's destruction or disempowerment. It also defines six superintelligence precursor characteristics, including capacities for automated AI R&D, unauthorized infrastructure access, independent operation, weapons development, self-modification, and deception of oversight.

This section establishes the Department of Artificial Intelligence as an executive department of the United States. It directs the department to safeguard the public from artificial intelligence dangers, including by enforcing a pause on advanced artificial intelligence development and a prohibition on artificial superintelligence.

This section establishes the position of Secretary of Artificial Intelligence as head of the Department. The Secretary is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate and is responsible for administering all laws under the Department's authority and for the control and management of the Department.

This section establishes the Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board to provide independent scientific and technical advice to the Secretary on the basis for Department rules and regulations. The Board consists of experts in artificial intelligence or other relevant fields selected by the Secretary.

This section prohibits officers and employees of the Department from participating in any matter in which they have a financial interest, owning or holding a controlling financial interest in any entity regulated by the Department, and representing any person before the Department after leaving employment.

This section imposes a mandatory pause on all advanced artificial intelligence systems and prohibits deployment of any unreleased system beginning on the date of enactment and ending when the Secretary determines the Department is fully staffed and has issued rules requiring pre-development reporting, ongoing monitoring and evaluation, safety audits, and final pre-deployment approval.

This section prohibits any person from developing, deploying, acquiring, possessing, funding, importing, or transferring artificial superintelligence or AI systems displaying superintelligence precursor characteristics. It bars deployment of AI systems that may foreseeably be modified to produce such characteristics. The Department must monitor advanced AI systems and organizational safety practices during pre-training, mid-training, post-training, and post-deployment periods, and must inspect and withhold pre-deployment approval for any advanced AI system posing a danger to the public.

This section directs the Secretary to immediately pause and sequester from the internet any artificial intelligence system identified as exhibiting superintelligence precursor characteristics. It further requires the Secretary to render such a system inoperative within 30 days if the characteristics cannot be verified as eliminated, and to immediately render inoperative any system identified as artificial superintelligence.

This section requires any person who discovers an artificial superintelligence or an artificial intelligence system possessing superintelligence precursor characteristics to notify the Secretary of the discovery within 24 hours.

This section requires any person to obtain a charter from the Secretary before developing or distributing an advanced artificial intelligence model. It conditions issuance and maintenance of the charter on granting the Secretary full access to the person's AI systems, processes, staff, and physical infrastructure for enforcement, and on forfeiture of the person's intellectual property and assets for destruction of related systems and hardware if the charter is revoked for a violation.

This section imposes fines and up to 20 years imprisonment on covered policymaking individuals or rogue actors who recklessly violate sections 8, 9, or 12 or related rules. It bars other individuals from employment in the artificial intelligence industry for 10 years, subject to appeal to the Secretary and waiver for whistleblowers who report violations. It requires the Secretary to revoke charters issued under section 12(a) for such violations, with appeal to the Federal Circuit that may include receivership of intellectual property and forfeiture of assets and systems upon affirmance.

This section prohibits employers from discharging, demoting, suspending, threatening, blacklisting, harassing, or otherwise discriminating against current or former employees and independent contractors in the terms and conditions of employment because the individual provided information about a violation of the Act to the Department, a law enforcement agency, Congress, or an internal supervisor, or assisted in a related investigation or proceeding.

This section directs the Secretary of Artificial Intelligence, in coordination with the Secretary of State, to pursue international agreements and allied coordination to prevent the development of artificial superintelligence. It establishes the policy of the United States to prevent the development of artificial superintelligence globally, which may include export controls on artificial intelligence computing infrastructure.

This section prohibits federal funds from being used for activities that violate sections 8, 9, or 12 or rules issued under those sections. It creates an exception allowing the Department of Artificial Intelligence to use such funds for research on defensive cybersecurity measures that employ artificial intelligence systems with the characteristics described in section 3(6)(B).