If you needed another reason to question the apocalyptic rhetoric surrounding artificial intelligence, look no further than one of its most prominent congressional champions. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ push to ban AI systems deemed as capable as, or more capable than, humans was reportedly not crafted in Washington. Key elements of the proposal reportedly came from London, a fact Sanders and the other lawmakers attached to the bill did not initially disclose. Because when America is trying to win the race for the century’s most consequential technology, there is obviously no better place to seek guidance than a country that has spent decades making it harder to build things, and now largely relies on finance, real estate and a shrinking collection of prestige brands to keep itself afloat.

So the question is simple: Who is really shaping America’s AI policy?

In the United Kingdom, Labour MP Alex Sobel introduced the Artificial Superintelligence Security Bill around Sept. 8, a proposal drafted by ControlAI, the London-based nonprofit pushing for sweeping restrictions on advanced AI. That is where the story reaches Washington. Through the nonprofit's U.S. arm, ControlAI also consulted on Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar’s similar Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, announced five days earlier on Sept. 3. 

In other words, the organization helping write Britain’s anti-AI bill also shaped the American version.

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At least now the bill’s worldview makes more sense. It does not read like a serious American plan, but like a London-style attempt to regulate a transformative industry into submission. Its broad definition of prohibited AI could pull familiar, long-standing technologies into the same panic-driven framework simply because they outperform humans at narrow tasks. And threatening people with up to 20 years in prison for helping develop AI is the kind of regulatory maximalism approach that has helped Britain turn technological innovation into economic stagnation. 

The United States leads the world in technology precisely because it has historically built, competed and taken risks rather than surrendered its future to bureaucratic fear. American lawmakers should not import the instincts of a country that has spent decades constraining its own industrial capacity, then market that agenda as homegrown policy.