A cross-party group of more than 70 MPs and peers has urged Andy Burnham to back a ban on the creation of artificial superintelligence (ASI) and to lead an international effort to halt its development. The intervention follows a week of alarm from experts and an Anthropic employee’s claim that new AI technology could potentially wipe out humanity.
The signatories include 15 former government ministers, the former head of the civil service Robin Butler, senior Labour figures such as John McDonnell, and leading members from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National parties. In a letter sent to the prime minister they called on the government to throw its weight behind a bill tabled in the House of Commons this week that would prohibit ASI.
The proposed legislation targets an as-yet-nonexistent form of AI defined in the letter as systems that would outcompete human capabilities across most domains. Supporters of the ban argue that the rapid development of powerful AI systems, and public warnings from experts, mean urgent legal safeguards are required to manage potential risks.
Those backing the move pointed to recent commentary from researchers and industry insiders, including an Anthropic employee, who have suggested a non-negligible risk that highly advanced AI could pose an existential threat. One widely reported assessment during the week put the chance of human extinction from such technology at around 10% within the next decade, stoking calls for international coordination on limits and oversight.
Backers of the bill say ministerial endorsement would strengthen efforts to build a global coalition to curb the most extreme forms of AI development. Opponents and some AI researchers have argued that prohibiting future classes of technology could be premature or technically difficult to enforce, though such counterarguments were not detailed in the letter itself.
The bill remains at an early stage in the Commons. Advocates of the ban say swift parliamentary and international action is needed to keep pace with advances in AI capabilities and to mitigate potential catastrophic risks.