Inside the AI 2040 Plan to Lock Down Frontier Compute
How the AI 2040 proposal aims to halt frontier training using 10,000 H100 audits, 1 MB/s pipe caps, and US-China physical encryption keys.
Washington Hones in on AI Safety, What Are AI Doomers Proposing | Diet TBPN
With John Coogan, Jordi Hays · Sunday, September 13, 2026
John Coogan and Jordi Hays examine the specific proposals from the AI safety and 'doomer' community, specifically analyzing the concrete policy and compute containment mechanisms outlined in AI 2040. They discuss Bernie Sanders' proposed artificial superintelligence ban featuring a 'corporate death penalty', debates over whether existential risk can be falsified through financial markets, and the emerging ethical questions surrounding digital fruit fly brain simulations.
Key takeaways
- The AI 2040 proposal demands an immediate halt to frontier model training runs while permitting existing clusters to run inference. Read more →
- Senator Bernie Sanders is floating a legislative proposal that imposes up to 20 years in prison and a corporate death penalty for building unapproved artificial superintelligence. Read more →
- The AI 2040 proposal aims to delay artificial general intelligence to 2035 and artificial superintelligence to 2040 by enforcing strict compute caps on clusters with over 10,000 H100 equivalents. Read more →
- Google mapped the complete neural connectome of a fruit fly, giving researchers the full 3D wiring diagram of its brain. Read more →
- Tyler Cowen challenges AI doomers to prove their convictions by identifying specific market prices that would confirm or falsify their extinction timelines. Read more →
5 articles from this episode
Bernie Sanders Proposes Prison and Death Penalty for AI
TBPN explores Bernie Sanders' legislative proposal threatening 20-year prison sentences and forced corporate dissolution for building frontier AI.
Why AI 2040 Wants to Delay Superintelligence to 2040
John Coogan and Jordi Hays break down the AI 2040 proposal to cap compute, delay AGI to 2035, and contain superintelligence.
When a Simulated Fruit Fly Feels Trapped on a Rabbit R1
John Coogan and Jordi Hays discuss digital fruit fly brains, hardware experiments, and the ethics of running simulated minds on edge devices.
Tyler Cowen, Paul Christiano, and the AI Doom Trade
Can financial markets price AI extinction? John Coogan and Jordi Hays debate Tyler Cowen's bet challenge and Paul Christiano's portfolio.
More TBPN episodes
- Fruitfly Hard Takeoff, Parker's Vineyard, Personal AgentsSep 13 · 4 articles
- OpenAI Cracks Navier-Stokes, Tech Trailers, AI Jobs Apocalypse on Hold | Diet TBPNSep 13 · 4 articles
- Apple’s iPhone Duo, Meta’s Muse AI Agent, Anthropic Researcher Quits Over AI Doom | Diet TBPNSep 13 · 5 articles
- Some Personal Agent News, CharlestonAI Founder Joins, 10%, Mikey Shulman, Keith RaboisSep 13 · 7 articles