A surge in data center development across the United States, essential for powering artificial intelligence, has sparked increasing opposition. Consequently, two prominent political figures are advocating for a prohibition on constructing any new data centers whose peak power consumption surpasses 20 megawatts.
Today, Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York are jointly presenting corresponding legislative proposals in both the Senate and House. These bills aim to pause such projects until Congress establishes thorough regulations for artificial intelligence.
Senator Sanders’ office highlights comments from numerous technology leaders who have voiced concerns regarding AI and urged for more stringent oversight or a temporary halt to its advancement. Among these figures are Elon Musk, who famously stated, “AI is far more dangerous than nukes. So why do we have no regulatory oversight?,” along with Google DeepMind head Demis Hassabis, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton.
According to a Pew Research survey conducted in March, most Americans express greater apprehension than enthusiasm about artificial intelligence, with only 10% of respondents indicating their excitement surpassed their worries. Nevertheless, the substantial political contributions from AI corporations and anxieties about falling behind China in an AI arms race could complicate the passage of such legislation.
This proposed legislation could be considered an initial framework for future AI regulation. The two legislators aim for the US government to assess and approve AI models before public deployment, implement safeguards against job losses caused by AI, mitigate the environmental footprint of data infrastructure, and mandate unionized labor for its development. Furthermore, they intend to ban the export of advanced microchips to nations lacking comparable regulatory frameworks—a category that currently includes the majority of countries.