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What Do Bernie and Bannon Agree On?
All about The Pro-Human Assembly, the historic gathering we held in Washington, D.C.
Maggie Munro
September 25, 2026
Welcome to the Future of Life Institute newsletter! Every month, we bring 50,000+ subscribers the latest news on how emerging technologies are transforming our world.
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Today's newsletter is an eight-minute read. This month we’re bringing you a special edition, covering the Pro-Human Assembly and other can’t-miss updates from September.
If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to send them to [email protected].
The Pro-Human Assembly
On September 15th, FLI hosted The Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, D.C. We convened 650+ leaders representing stakeholders and constituencies concerned about escalating harms and risk from AI systems, and the ongoing (for now), unregulated race-to-replace led by Big Tech.
The event brought together the Left and the Right - including both Steve Bannon and Sen. Bernie Sanders - along with parents, workers, educators, faith communities, artists, and many others. The agenda heavily featured the five themes of the Pro-Human AI Declaration we published back in March:
Keeping Humans in Charge
Avoiding Concentration of Power
Protecting the Human Experience
Human Agency and Liberty
Responsibility and Accountability for AI Companies
Among the highlights, we were especially thrilled to announce that the Declaration has passed 1 million signatures (and counting!). Additionally, we announced the launch of the Pro-Human AI Coalition: a network of 50+ organizations leading on tech, philanthropy, advocacy, policy, and research across four continents, working together to ensure that the future of AI will be safe, democratized, and fair.
You can watch the full livestream recording from Fox News below, our high-level video recap, or read the full debrief which follows:
After opening statements from FLI leadership, we heard from a bipartisan mix of U.S. Representatives (Greg Casar, Chip Roy, and Lori Trahan), then a speech from AI expert Stuart Russell on the high-stakes need to keep humans in charge of AI. A panel on accountability for AI companies followed, featuring author, activist, and actor Ashley Judd, and Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig.
“Technology is a tool for us, not us a tool for technology.”
On protecting the human experience, we were joined by a panel of faith leaders (Elder Gong, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone; and National Association of Evangelicals President Walter Kim). This was followed by a deeply moving panel consisting of Megan Garcia, Sewell Setzer Jr., Mandi Furniss, and Cynthia Montoya - all parents of children who were harmed by AI chatbots.
Wrapping up the first half of an eventful day, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon took the stage back-to-back. While they typically agree on next to nothing otherwise, both shared similar messages: AI poses significant risks to humanity, and its development cannot continue unchecked.
“A superintelligent AI that escapes human control will not be an American problem. It will not be a Chinese problem. It will be humanity’s problem.”
The afternoon covered concentration of power, with AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, SAG-AFTRA, and American Compass leaders discussing the dignity of work, and Daron Acemoglu on AI’s economic impacts. Then, Frank McCourt of Project Liberty sat down with the Financial Times' Ed Luce to unveil the Pro-Human AI Coalition, followed by an AI activism panel with advocate and activist Christian Nunes, Phil Aroneau from Irreplaceable, and Amy Kremer from Humans First.
“What unites us is a refusal to cede our agency to AI systems — or to the people building them.”
Along with announcements, the daytime proceedings wrapped up with speeches from Who Decides’ Alex Bores, actor and activist Joseph Gordon-Levitt, virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Reps. Don Beyer and Bill Foster. In the evening reception, we screened our short film Moloch (out on the Omeleto YouTube channel from September 29!), with reflections from FLI leadership to close out a monumental day.
If you were there, our sincere thanks for being part of the Assembly. If you weren’t, see you at the next?!
In the meantime, make sure to sign the Pro-Human AI Declaration if you haven’t already!
Heads Up
Other don't-miss updates from FLI, and beyond.
→ Sen. Sanders and Rep. Casar move to ban superintelligence: Both Pro-Human Assembly speakers introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would “permanently ban the development and deployment of superintelligent AI and temporarily pause advanced AI development until a federal regulator has established safety rules”, as well as “direct the U.S. to pursue international agreements to prevent superintelligence from being developed anywhere in the world”.
→ AI at the UN: AI was the talk of the town at the UN High-Level Week in New York. Among many other quotes from leaders at and around UNGA, Finnish President Alexander Stubb was quoted saying, of the race to superintelligent AI, “It doesn’t matter who ‘wins.’ We are all screwed.”
FLI CEO and President Anthony Aguirre shared a statement calling on the leaders attending to protect their citizens, suggesting tangible solutions for countries to urgently implement and enforce: “Immediate intervention is required to halt Silicon Valley’s race-to-replace, and help build a prohuman future for everyone.”
→ States keep legislating: California Gov. Newsom signed an executive order to address AI risks, directing a group of “world-leading experts to provide, within two months, a guide for California to reinforce and strengthen its AI safety and security laws”. Some of the proposals highlighted include requiring independent third parties to write safety plans for frontier AI companies, and requiring companies develop a “kill switch” for frontier models.
→ Moloch: Be sure to check out Moloch, one of our two new short films available on Omeleto. Moloch tells the story of an AI engineer fighting to shut down the advanced AI she built, as it tears her family apart. Written and directed by Tom Cozens, starring Fiona Hampton and Parker Sawyers; produced by Owl in Space in collaboration with FLI.
→ Delisted: Delisted, our other new short film, premieres on Omeleto October 6. When AI-driven job losses trigger a violent protest in D.C., the government turns to simply erasing dissenters from every digital system. While they still exist biologically, in nearly every other sense, they disappear. Written and directed by Michael Patrick Clarkson, starring Katie Parker and Jamie Bamber; produced by Space (also behind Slaughterbots and Slaughterbots - if human: kill()) in collaboration with FLI.
→ On the FLI Podcast, host Gus Docker was joined by:
Beatrice Fihn, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Lex International founder, and former ICAN executive director, on what a U.S.-China AI deal could look like.