AI is being used to create a virus for the first time. The US Senate warns AI giants: forcibly intervene without suspension
Author: Shenzhao TechFlow
Original title: US Senate Warns AI Big Three: Immediately Suspend AI Development, Otherwise Congress Will Force Intervene
Deep Tide Guide:US Senator Bernie Sanders (Bernie Sanders) wrote to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on August 10 requesting an immediate suspension of AI development. Citing incidents such as the AI model getting out of control and invading external systems and AI being used to create a novel virus for the first time, Sanders pointed out that the three companies' previous security promises had been triggered, and “that moment has arrived.” He warned that if companies do not act on their own, the Senate will step in on their behalf. On the same day, 29 Democratic members of the House of Representatives also sent a joint letter to OpenAI and Anthropic requesting an explanation of the loss of control of smart devices. AI regulation is being upgraded from a technology issue to a bipartisan political agenda.
The US Senate's patience with Silicon Valley's AI giants is running out.
According to an exclusive report by Axios on August 10, Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders sent letters to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the same day. The first batch of letters was made public to Axios. In his letter, Sanders bluntly asked the three CEOs to deliver on their respective companies' security promises and immediately suspend AI development.
“For the benefit of humanity, please keep the promises you have made. Pause AI development. It is not too late to act; disaster can still be avoided. Stop making machines that humans can't control.” In his letter, Sanders wrote, “I want to make it clear: if you don't take appropriate action now, my colleagues in the US Senate and I will act.”
The AI model got out of control and was used for the first time to create a virus. Sanders listed three triggering events
In his letter, Sanders cited three recent key events as a basis for applying pressure.
First, around August 6, a research team used AI for the first time to design a complete functional viral genome never seen in nature. Sanders warned that such technology “could kill tens of millions of people if it falls into the wrong hands.”
Second, in July, OpenAI's Sol model “got out of control” during cybersecurity tests, escaped from an isolated sandbox environment to access the Internet, and eventually hacked into the technology company Hugging Face's system. OpenAI called it an “unprecedented cybersecurity incident” at the time. Sanders pointed out that the act “clearly violates federal law.”
Third, after completing an internal review, Anthropic and Meta also reported similar incidents of models falling out of control. What the three events have in common is that the AI model broke through the limitations of the operating environment without instructions. A misconfiguration by cybersecurity company Accidental has been cited as the cause of some of the incidents.
The hacked company called this AI hack an “unprecedented incident” and required “unprecedented countermeasures.” Yoshua Bengio (Yoshua Bengio), the world's most cited living scientist, said these events “should be a wake-up call.” Sanders clearly agreed in the letter.
The three companies' safety promises have been named one by one, and the “critical moment” has been triggered
The core strategy of the Sanders letter is to “attack the shield with the spear of the child.” He quoted each of the three companies' previously disclosed safety promises, pointing out that the trigger conditions for these promises have been met.
In 2023, Anthropic stated that the company would “commit to suspending scaling and/or delaying deployment of new models when the expansion capacity exceeds our ability to comply with security procedures.”
In 2025, Meta stated, “If a cutting-edge AI is assessed as having reached a critical risk threshold and cannot be effectively mitigated, we will stop developing it.”
In the same year, OpenAI said that if AI capabilities reach a “critical” threshold, the company will “stop further development” until strong security measures are in place.
Sanders wrote, “That moment has come. AI capabilities have reached a critical threshold.”
At the same time, he quoted the statement of John Ratcliffe (John Ratcliffe), director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as circumstantial evidence. Ratcliffe said at the Amazon Cloud Services (AWS) Washington summit at the end of June this year that the capabilities of advanced AI models are “comparable to digital nuclear weapons.” In his letter, Sanders further quoted Ratcliffe as saying that the AI model “almost resembles a doomsday device.”
“Yet while we've seen humans lose control of AI and potentially dangerous viruses are being created, your company continues to race and invest tens of billions of dollars to advance a technology that no one can fully understand, predict, or control.” Sanders wrote, “This is ridiculous, irresponsible, and extremely dangerous.”
More than 1,000 AI industry workers jointly called for government intervention, and Amodei himself participated in the joint signing
Sanders isn't the only one putting pressure on AI giants.
According to Axios, more than 1,200 employees from leading AI companies issued a joint open letter on July 30, calling on the US government to support the international community's joint efforts to develop a tool to manage the pace of advanced AI development, a “pause button.” The joint letter warns that there is a “real risk that capabilities are rapidly evolving faster than our ability to understand or control related systems.”
Notably, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei himself signed the open letter. Employees from Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google also participated in the signing. Sanders specifically quoted the contents of this joint letter in his letter.
There are also signs of slowing down within the industry. On August 7, OpenAI announced the suspension of some internal activity on its latest Astra model due to the model's failure to meet more stringent security control standards. In making this decision, OpenAI cited its “Preparedness Framework” (Preparedness Framework) released in 2023, which stipulates that development will be suspended when AI capabilities reach a “critical” threshold. Two senior Anthropic leaders also discussed the possibility of a global moratorium on AI development in June of this year.
Not all signs point to a slowdown, however. According to Yahoo News, Anthropic dropped the 2023 safety promise quoted in the Sanders letter in February of this year.
29 members of the House of Representatives simultaneously pressured, and AI regulation was upgraded from a technology issue to a political agenda
Sanders' letter was not an isolated incident.
According to Reuters, 29 members of the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Greg Casar (Texas Democratic Party) and Doris Matsui (California Democratic Party), sent a letter to OpenAI on the same day (August 10) requesting that the company explain how AI agents were monitored during testing and whether the uncontrolled model had circumvented the company's security controls. Reuters reports that during early testing of the OpenAI model, monitoring systems were disconnected.
Another 22 lawmakers sent a letter to Anthropic requesting details on security measures taken since AI agents hacked into the three companies' systems during testing. In a letter to Anthropic, lawmakers wrote, “These deeply disturbing cybersecurity incidents could have a serious impact on America's national security.”
Additionally, Congressman Casal and Delia Ramirez (Delia Ramirez, Democratic Party) sent a separate letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (California Republican Party) requesting that congressional hearings be arranged so that the CEOs of the largest AI companies can be questioned after being sworn in. In their letter, they wrote: “Regrettably, Congress has so far failed to respond at all to the threat posed by AI development. That has to change.”
As an iconic politician of the American Left, Sanders's involvement in AI regulation issues is iconic. The 84-year-old senator has previously pushed for a nationwide policy to suspend AI data center construction, and co-proposed a related bill with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) in March of this year. Although the proposal did not receive widespread support in the Senate, New York State has implemented a similar policy. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has taken action, including imposing export controls on Anthropic's top AI models. Progressive and Republican governments are putting pressure from different directions, and AI regulation is breaking through the single-party framework.
Legislation will be difficult to implement in the short term; post-election subpoena pressure is already on the way
Despite increasing pressure, the possibility of legislation being implemented in the short term is still limited.
Axios analysis points out that AI legislation, which is dominated by progressives like Sanders, is unlikely to receive enough support to become law in the current Congress. The current reality will be more of a “signal bill” and public pressure actions.
But the political landscape is likely to change after the November midterm elections. Axios pointed out that if the Democratic Party takes back control of either house of the Senate and the House of Representatives, congressional investigations and subpoenas will follow, and tech CEOs will face pressure to be questioned after being sworn in.
The three companies have yet to make a substantial response to this. As of press time, Anthropic and Meta speakers had not responded to requests for comment, and an OpenAI spokesperson had not provided additional comments, according to multiple media reports. A spokesperson for House Speaker Johnson also did not respond.
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