Bernie Sanders is pulling senators into a room to hear why AI might be a problem, and he's not inviting the industry to explain itself.
Sanders has convened a private, bipartisan briefing for senators on the risks of artificial intelligence, set for September 16 on Capitol Hill. Three of the field's most prominent skeptics will do the talking: Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel-winning computer scientist who left Google to warn about AI risk, Max Tegmark, the MIT physicist behind the Future of Life Institute, and Ajeya Cotra, a researcher known for her work on AI timelines. The three will address senators for an hour. Axios reporter Maria Curi first reported the briefing.
The lineup is the tell here. These are not startup founders pitching a roadmap - they're three of the loudest voices arguing the technology is moving faster than anyone's ability to control it. Convening them behind closed doors, rather than in a public hearing, suggests Sanders wants senators to absorb the warnings without the theater that usually surrounds AI testimony on the Hill.
Congress has spent the last few years mostly listening to the companies building this stuff. A closed session stacked with safety researchers is a different kind of input, and it lands as AI regulation remains stalled in Washington despite repeated calls for action. Whether an hour of briefing moves any actual legislation is another question - Capitol Hill has heard dire AI warnings before and mostly filed them away.