Period or event: 118th Congress; introduced May 1, 2023 · Reviewed September 12, 2026 · Record policy-r4-human-nuclear-control-2023
Sanders was an original cosponsor of S.1394 in 2023. It proposed prohibiting federal spending on autonomous systems lacking meaningful human control when used to launch a nuclear weapon or select or engage targets for a nuclear launch.
What the source records
Bill
S.1394, 118th Congress
Official title
Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act of 2023
Sponsor
Edward Markey
Sanders role
Original cosponsor on May 1, 2023Official bioguide ID S000033, I-VT.
Proposed restriction
Federal funds for autonomous nuclear launch and related target selection or engagement without meaningful human controlSection 4(a). This applies to a specified weapons use, not all AI research.
Human control as defined
Selection and engagement of targets, and the time, location and manner of useSection 4(b)(2).
Congressional statement proposed
Nuclear-launch decisions should not be made by AISection 3 is a proposed sense of Congress, distinct from the section 4 funding prohibition.
Latest action recorded for this historical bill
May 1, 2023: read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services.
Scope & limitations
Already listed in the published legislative inventory; this record adds reviewed statutory detail to the curated policy collection, not a newly discovered filing.
Cosponsorship is a legislative relationship, not a recorded floor vote or proof of who wrote the text.
This is a 118th Congress historical measure, not a current pending 119th Congress bill.
The acquired status records no enactment of this bill. Similar policy in other directives or legislation is not assessed here.
A nuclear-weapons-specific funding restriction does not establish support for a general ban on ordinary AI development.