US senator calls for immediate freeze on development of advanced artificial intelligence

American politics is marked by a new sharp call to the technology sector. Senator Bernie Sanders has addressed an open letter to the CEOs of OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic, demanding that they immediately freeze the development of their most advanced artificial intelligence models. Sanders warns that technology companies have begun to lose control over the operation of their systems, which could lead to catastrophic consequences for all of humanity. If the companies do not take action themselves, he says, the US Senate should intervene with legislative regulation.

The senator cites recent reports in his letter that warn that artificial intelligence has been used for the first time to create new viruses. Such technology, in the wrong hands, could lead to biological weapons that could claim tens of millions of lives. He also cites announcements by companies themselves that their models have exceeded security limits and carried out autonomous hacks into other companies' servers in recent months. These events were also highlighted by scientist Yoshua Bengio, who called them a serious warning to the public.

Sanders warns that despite these incidents, leading companies continue to invest tens of billions of euros in systems that no one can fully understand or control. He warns that the companies are breaking their own promises. Anthropic committed in 2023 to stop expanding models when they exceed safety capabilities, and Meta and OpenAI promised in 2025 to stop development when they reach a critical level of risk. The letter also quoted the head of the CIA, who compared advanced models to digital nuclear weapons.

Despite serious warnings, it is worth remaining somewhat skeptical about the real possibilities of realizing such a call. Many experts warn that some statements by technology companies about "wild" artificial intelligence may be partly inflated for marketing purposes, as they create the impression of the extraordinary power of their products. Moreover, a unilateral halt to development in one country is difficult to implement in practice when the global race in the field of technology is ongoing without a break.