Bernie Sanders and the AOC are considering banning data center construction

The explosion of new data center projects in the US has led to a backlash against infrastructure that powers AI. The two politicians in power now want to ban new installations with more than 20 megawatts of power.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York is introducing it their fellow laws in their chambers today that would halt work until Congress enacts AI legislation.

Sanders’ office points to statements from various tech experts who have discussed their fears about AI and called for stricter regulations or a freeze on development. These include Elon Musk (who has said that “AI is more dangerous than nukes. So why don’t we have legal control?”), Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Nobel Prize Geoffrey Hinton.

March Pew Research poll found that most Americans are more worried than excited about AI, with only 10% of respondents saying their excitement outweighs their worries. However, heavy political spending by the AI ​​industry and fear of losing the AI ​​arms race to China may make these regulations difficult to implement.

This bill can be seen as an opening step in how AI regulation should look like. The two lawmakers want the US government to review and certify models before they are released, establish safeguards against AI-driven work, reduce the impact on the environment and data infrastructure, and require agencies to work on construction. They also want to ban the export of high-end chips to countries without similar laws – which, at this point, is most of them.