Sanders and Bannon demanded AI guardrails from opposite sides of the China argument
At the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, a progressive senator asked Trump to negotiate a pause with Xi while the president's former chief strategist demanded China be cut off entirely. Both aimed at the same companies.
The Board Room · Leadership desk
What happened
- Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon both told the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington on Tuesday that AI needs stringent guardrails, and both aimed their criticism at Silicon Valley's "oligarchs".
- Bannon praised the grassroots campaigns that had already defeated federal pre-emption bills written to block state-level AI regulation.
- Republican Chip Roy of Texas told the conference his constituents worry about competing with data centers for water and about the noise the centers generate.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint With a single national rulebook out of reach for now, a multistate AI deployment takes its compliance terms from state legislatures, and federal lobbying does not reach those rooms.
- What doesn't add up contradiction Sanders would pause frontier development by treaty; Bannon would shut China out first and only then consider domestic rules, so this coalition can stop a bill far more easily than it can write one.
- Who's exposed exposure A lab's public call for regulation now works as evidence against it before this audience, which treats the safety pitch as an attempt to move liability onto the public.
- Who has to decide decision Executives who have calibrated their Washington posture to the president's hoax framing have to decide which Republican wing sets AI policy after him.
Next story · Leadership · Sep 20
Huang calls the AI labs' demand for new rules a bid to escape the existing onesConfirmed3 publishers
A coalition that can block a bill should be assessed differently from one that can pass a law, and on Tuesday's evidence this one blocks. The federal pre-emption bills that failed were the industry's route to a single national rulebook, and Bannon credited grassroots campaigns with killing them [20].
The two headliners did not share a stage, and Bannon spoke only after Sanders had finished [2]. But the congressional attendance was bipartisan [3], and pre-emption is the kind of provision that comes back in the next vehicle. The two Texans on the program, progressive Democrat Greg Casar and conservative Republican Chip Roy, spoke one after the other. Casar said "No one can end the AI arms race. It's up to us to end the AI arms race" [12].
The split is over China, and it decides what each wing would do first. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, wants Washington at a negotiating table. "That is why I very much hope that at their AI summit next week, President Trump will negotiate a comprehensive treaty with President Xi to establish a pause on advanced AI development and a ban on super-intelligence," he said, comparing the moment to Reagan and Gorbachev eliminating a class of missiles [16][21]. Bannon is the War Room host and Trump's former White House chief strategist [14]. He took the same cold war frame to the opposite conclusion: expel Chinese nationals from US research laboratories, stop training Chinese engineers, sever capital flows [17]. "No deals, no agreements, you're out of the AI business because we're going to shut your ecosystem down," Bannon said [18]. Domestic regulation comes after that in his sequence [19].
The industry's own safety messaging is being read inside this room as a competitive move. Anthropic called on Saturday for a slowdown among the frontier labs, and OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk quickly echoed it [8]. Of the chief executives asking for regulation, Bannon said: "That's a bald-faced lie" [7]. He accused them of wanting to "socialise all the risk with the American people including potential bailouts" while keeping the financial upside [4]. Roy, who said free-enterprise Republican friends have "scolded" him for raising the subject [11], asked of the AI chief executives: "Might they want to corner the market and have a monopoly environment?" [10]
Both remedies need Trump. Bannon argued that executive action is required instead of legislation by Congress, and referred to Trump only glancingly [5]. Trump spent Monday posting seven times on Truth Social about AI, repeatedly calling fears over rapid development a "HOAX" and saying all AI needs is a strong president like him [6]. Roy told the conference he disagrees with that [11]. The Sanders route would require Trump to raise a pause when he hosts Xi in Washington next week [15].
For a planning horizon of one quarter, the assembly changes nothing on the statute books. Neither account cites a bill currently before Congress. A May survey cited by CBS News found 65% of Americans think AI will decrease jobs, and 67% think the federal government probably or certainly will not make sure AI is used in appropriate ways [13]. The assumption worth revisiting is that federal pre-emption eventually consolidates state AI rules into a single regime. By Bannon's account, grassroots pressure has already beaten that once [20].
What to watch
- Whether the next federal pre-emption attempt arrives in an appropriations or defense vehicle, and whether the same campaigns mobilize against it.
- Whether AI is on the agenda when Trump hosts Xi Jinping in Washington next week, and in what form.
- Whether more frontier lab staff follow Jacob Coxon, who resigned publicly from Anthropic this month.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence72
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap
- Not scored
- Incentives55
- Confidence68
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Progressive senator Bernie Sanders and rightwing strategist Steve Bannon called for restrictions on AI at the "Pro-Human Assembly" in Washington on Tuesday, united in warning of AI's potential dangers and demanding stringent guardrails against Silicon Valley's "oligarchs".
- [2]
Bannon spoke directly after Sanders but did not share a stage with him.
- [3]
Sanders and Bannon appeared at the Pro-Human Assembly along with a bipartisan group of members of Congress.
- [4]
Bannon accused Silicon Valley of seeking to "socialise all the risk with the American people including potential bailouts" while keeping all financial upside.
- [5]
Bannon claimed executive action is required rather than legislation by Congress, and made only a glancing reference to Trump, who has dismissed AI concerns as a "hoax" and "sick conspiracy".
- [6]
Trump made seven Truth Social posts about AI throughout Monday, repeatedly calling fears over rapid AI development a "HOAX" and saying all AI needs is a strong president like him.
- [7]
Bannon blasted the tech CEOs who have spoken out to say they need more regulations, saying "That's a bald-faced lie", and claiming they want to socialize the risk, shut out competitors and reap the financial benefits for themselves.
- [8]
On Saturday, Anthropic called for a slowdown in the frontier AI labs, which was quickly echoed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk.
- [9]
GOP Rep. Chip Roy, a conservative from Texas, told the conference he hears his constituents' concerns about data centers, citing worries about competing with data centers for water and about the noise the centers generate.
- [10]
Roy expressed skepticism about the motives of AI CEOs, asking: "Might they be self-interested?" and "Might they want to corner the market and have a monopoly environment?"
- [11]
Roy said he has been "scolded" by some of his free-enterprise Republican friends for raising these questions, and said he disagrees with Trump, who maintains that a strong president is all that's needed to safeguard AI.
- [12]
Just before Roy spoke, Democratic Rep. Greg Casar, a progressive from Texas, took the stage and said: "No one can end the AI arms race. It's up to us to end the AI arms race."
- [13]
Polling from May shows 65% of Americans think AI will decrease jobs, and 67% of Americans think the federal government probably or certainly will not make sure AI is used in appropriate ways.
- [14]
Bannon is the host of the War Room podcast and was White House chief strategist under Trump.
- [15]
Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, noted that Trump is due to host Chinese president Xi Jinping in Washington next week, and called for international diplomacy and a global agreement, including with Beijing, to ban the development of super-intelligent machines.
- [16]
Sanders said: "That is why I very much hope that at their AI summit next week, President Trump will negotiate a comprehensive treaty with President Xi to establish a pause on advanced AI development and a ban on super-intelligence."
- [17]
Bannon called for an aggressive economic and technological "quarantine" of China, demanding the immediate expulsion of Chinese nationals from US research laboratories, an end to the training of Chinese engineers and technologists, and the total severance of capital flows.
- [18]
Bannon said: "No deals, no agreements, you're out of the AI business because we're going to shut your ecosystem down."
- [19]
Bannon argued that only after isolating Beijing's tech sector can the US have the time necessary to consider the proper regulation of the tech sector.
- [20]
Bannon praised grassroots campaigns that previously defeated federal pre-emption bills aimed at blocking state-level AI regulations.
- [21]
Sanders drew a comparison with Reagan and Gorbachev seeking to avoid nuclear conflict at the height of the cold war and eventually signing a treaty that eliminated an entire class of missiles.
- [22]
AI researcher Jacob Coxon publicly resigned from Anthropic earlier this month and said artificial intelligence, while safe for people to use now, could one day threaten humanity as the technology grows more powerful.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- cbsnews.comIn Washington, unlikely bedfellows like Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon talk about making AI "humans first" - CBS News
2 articles · September 16, 2026
- theguardian.comBernie Sanders says Congress has been ‘asleep at the wheel’ over AI – video
3 articles · September 15, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- Superintelligence risk
- US-China Open Model Competition
- Data centers
- AI Regulation