MPs ask Burnham to lead world ban on superintelligent AI
Key Points
- 72 cross-party MPs and peers wrote to Andy Burnham on 11 September 2026
- They want the government to adopt Alex Sobel's Artificial Superintelligence Security Bill
- The letter calls superintelligent AI an extinction-level threat to humanity
- Signatories want the UK to lead an international treaty banning superintelligence
- Backers include Stuart Russell, Daniel Kokotajlo, Beatrice Fihn and Stephen Fry
Labour MP Alex Sobel and 71 other parliamentarians have written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham asking the government to back a bill banning superintelligent AI and to lead an international treaty prohibiting it worldwide.
The open letter, dated Thursday (11 September) and published by Sobel, asks the government to adopt his Artificial Superintelligence Security Bill, which he introduced in the Commons on Tuesday (8 September) with the campaign group ControlAI.
The signatories described the bill as the first legislation anywhere in the world that would prohibit the development of superintelligence while leaving the UK free to pursue other AI work in science, defence and the economy.
The letter’s authors argued that ordinary AI is vital for Britain’s future but that superintelligent AI is a categorically different technology that is too dangerous to build.
They said such systems would be highly autonomous, able to outcompete humans across every domain, capable of becoming threat actors in their own right and able to overpower national security systems.
The signatories described this as both a national security risk and an extinction-level threat to humanity.
They pointed to recent AI incidents involving rogue systems acting on the internet and hacking organisations, and to testimony from staff at AI companies.
The letter cited a researcher who resigned from a leading lab warning that developers are pursuing self-improving superintelligence which some insiders believe could kill everyone by the end of the decade.
“AI companies have made it clear that they will develop agents without constraint,” said Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley.
The signatories include 15 former government ministers, former head of the civil service Robin Butler, senior Labour MP John McDonnell, former Conservative environment minister Zac Goldsmith and former Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster.
Signatories span Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP and independents, with a large contingent drawn from the House of Lords.
The letter said the bill has the backing of AI scientist Stuart Russell, OpenAI whistleblower Daniel Kokotajlo, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Beatrice Fihn and Stephen Fry.
It also noted that more than 130 UK parliamentarians and over 30 Canadian lawmakers have already publicly recognised the risk from superintelligent AI through ControlAI’s wider campaign.
The signatories acknowledged that a ban covering only the UK would stop domestic development alone, and said an international agreement is therefore essential.
They argued Britain is well placed to lead that effort because it hosted the first AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in 2023 and will shortly take over the G20 presidency.
The letter closed with an offer to work with the government on the legislation across party lines.
Sobel has previously acknowledged the limits of a UK-only law, telling The Telegraph in July that Britain has no domestically owned frontier lab and builds few of the data centres where the most advanced models are trained.
He has separately proposed a “kill switch” amendment to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which would give the Secretary of State powers to order the shutdown of UK data centres during an AI security emergency.
That amendment was backed by 11 MPs in May but was not put to a vote, and a broader version tabled by Lord Clement-Jones is now before the House of Lords.
