Lawmakers push for AI safety legislation amid extinction fears

A researcher quit his job at one of the world’s most prominent AI companies and told the world the technology could wipe out humanity within a decade. Congress, for once, appears to be listening. Jacob Coxon’s resignation from Anthropic on September 8, 2026, has done what years of academic papers and conference panels couldn’t: it created genuine legislative momentum for binding federal AI safety rules. More than 20 congressional members have publicly called for stricter oversight in the days since, and a bipartisan group of senators is advancing a bill that would impose a legal “duty of care” on developers of powerful AI models. The bill and its backers Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Thune, and Ted Cruz are leading the charge. Their proposed legislation would convert the voluntary safety pledges that AI companies have been making for years into enforceable legal requirements. The bill’s core provisions include mandatory pre-release safety testing for advanced AI systems, independent third-party audits, and standardized reporting obligations for developers. It would also grant the government authority to intervene and prevent the release of AI models deemed hazardous. Under the propo...