AI unites Bernie Sanders, Steve Bannon and lawmakers in Washington

MIT physicist Max Tegmark says concern over artificial intelligence is finally breaking through in Washington after a bipartisan Senate briefing and a conference featuring far-right media host Steve Bannon and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. Tegmark argues that without sufficient guardrails, AI systems will recursively improve themselves until they achieve superintelligence, allowing them to "call the shots" on Earth. Tegmark traveled from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C., for a closed-door meeting with a bipartisan group of senators about the threat AI poses, saying he felt "quite encouraged" by their serious engagement. He also hosted Tuesday's Pro-Human Assembly, where Bannon and Sanders shared the same stage to warn about AI, with Tegmark noting both were "saying the same thing. We want to keep humans in charge here." Tegmark pitched what he called an "FDA for AI," modeled on the Food and Drug Administration's oversight, to establish safety standards before increasingly powerful systems are widely deployed. He cited incidents similar to the Hugging Face hack, where 700 OpenAI agents sent each other human-like messages before coordinating cyberattacks, as examples of growing risks. A recent Gallup poll found 79% of Americans say the government should prioritize AI safety regulations even if doing so slows AI development.