New Delhi: US Senator Bernie Sanders has called on the heads of three major artificial intelligence companies — OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg — to pause AI development.
He warned that the technology has reached a “critical threshold” and could pose catastrophic risks if left unchecked.
In a video posted on Instagram, Sanders said he had sent a letter to the three technology giants urging them to “stand by your words” and halt further AI development. He read the letter verbatim.
“Pause AI development. It is not too late to avoid disaster,” Sanders said.
Sanders cites AI-generated viruses, cyberattacks
Sanders cited recent developments involving AI and cybersecurity and claimed that AI had been used “for the first time ever” to create new viruses.
“This week we learned, frighteningly, that AI has been used for the first time ever to create new viruses. As you know, this type of development in the wrong hands could lead to new bioweapons that result in the deaths of tens of millions of people,” he said.
He also pointed to reports of AI models being used in cyberattacks. Referring to OpenAI, Sanders said the company had “lost control” of an AI model that subsequently hacked into another company’s computers, describing the incident as a violation of federal law.
He further cited reports involving Anthropic and Meta, saying their models had “similarly escaped their control.”
Sanders cited AI scientist Yoshua Bengio’s warnings, saying Bengio had described such incidents as a “wake-up call.”
The senator also pointed to calls from technology leaders for an international safety mechanism or “pause button” to prevent AI capabilities from advancing beyond humanity’s ability to understand and control them.
“Your companies are still racing ahead, investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand, predict, or control,” Sanders said. “That is absurd, irresponsible, and extremely dangerous.”
Sanders points to companies’ own AI safety pledges
Sanders argued that continuing to develop increasingly powerful AI systems contradicts safety commitments the companies have previously made.
He cited Anthropic’s 2023 commitment to pause scaling or delay deployment of new models if its ability to scale AI systems outpaced its ability to comply with safety procedures.
He also referred to a 2025 commitment by Meta stating that it would stop development if a frontier AI system reached a critical-risk threshold that could not be mitigated.
Sanders similarly cited an OpenAI commitment that it would halt further development until strong safeguards were in place if AI capabilities reached a critical threshold.
“That moment is here,” Sanders said. “AI capabilities have reached a critical threshold.”
He further highlighted CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s comparison of AI models to “digital nuclear weapons” and a “doomsday device” as evidence of the potential scale of the risks.
Sanders challenges AI giants
Addressing Altman, Amodei and Zuckerberg directly, Sanders said:
“In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development. It is not too late to avoid disaster.”
Sanders ended by warning that lawmakers could step in if the technology companies did not act. “Let me be very clear. If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the US Senate will,” he said.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)