Don’t call it artificial superintellgience FFS ☠️☠️☠️
This is so dumb and exactly what I would imagine from Indiana. Everyone in here cheering it on is braindead.
Life is never as simple as people like this wish it was.
Fast forward a hundred years and this place will be the last refuge from the incursion due to archaic laws written a century prior.
Ughh… don’t call it superintelligence. That’s not a thing.
The people pushing it the most are anti-intellectuals.
We need to call it fake intelligence.
So, artificial?
That’s what it’s already called, “artificial” is a synonym for “fake” in most contexts.
It’s a thing in the sense that unicorns are a thing. There aren’t any currently, but it’s a coherent concept. If they banned unicorns within city limits, the ban wouldn’t do anything unless someone managed to make a unicorn; same idea with ASI.
This is supposedly the actual ordinance
However it’s not published on their official government site (yet?), which only has up to ordinance 28 published (the anti_AG one is #29). I can’t find any indication this has actually passed (note that the doc linked above isn’t signed and has an empty space for date-of-passage). But maybe the site just isn’t updated.
https://webmail.bloomington.in.gov/council/legislation/Ordinance/2026
I guess the interesting parts are, the justification for the law
Under Indiana Code § 36-1-3 (The Home Rule Act), the Common Council has sovereign authority to regulate public safety hazard nuisances within its jurisdiction.
The definition of what’s banned, which, as other comments have pointed out, doesn’t actually exist
Superintelligence” shall be analogous to an Artificial General Intelligence (“AGI”) with capabilities of Agency (A), Generality (G) and Intelligence (I), wherein an AGI does possess super-human capability in all three aspects, of AGI, as an AGI wherein any such autonomous Agentic (A) system capable of self-modifying its core algorithms, executing code in environments outside its initial sandbox, or operating without continuous human oversight while Generally (G) performing any complex goal-oriented task that may affect municipal infrastructure, financial markets, or public safety, in combination with an extreme level of super-human Intelligence (I), and defined by the AI Industry standard terminology “Superintelligence” herein defined as “Any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest.”
And that it doesn’t say you can’t use it, it says you can’t “deploy” or “distribute” it
No person or corporation shall distribute or permit to be distributed nor deployed into the premises of any citizen or business in our City, any Superintelligence for any purpose. Deployment, for the purposes of this ordinance, shall include the remote execution, activation, or utilization of any unauthorized digital agent through a locally accessed interface, browser, API, or connected hardware within the City of Bloomington, regardless of the physical location of the server infrastructure hosting the system.
In the US, you cannot ban people from using an app on their personal phone in your community. This is just ignorant. I’m not an AI bro, but you can’t just have each community deciding on what constitutional rights they want to violate.
Not sure freedom to use apps is included in the US Constitution …
That would likely violate the first amendment. Many of the ways you use your phone are considered forms of speech/expression. Wholesale banning of sectors of these by a government is a legitimate violation of your rights.
Fuck AI, tho.
Tell that to all the places that banned porn.
Well, you see, something something God.
Originally porn was protected by the first amendment.
There’s a whole movie about this called the people versus Larry flynt that kind of explains why.
In all seriousness, if someone wanted to sue that local government referring the first amendment, they would likely take the ban down.
That said, I don’t find any actual article from a reputable news outlet describing what actually happened and what is in the city council ordinance. Likely a brief unenforceable article, which, as such, has no bearing on anyone’s life.
A redditor mentioned they banned “self improving” ai, which, if true, would explain why it isn’t getting more coverage- this is a nothing burger.
A redditor mentioned they banned “self improving” ai, which, if true, would explain why it isn’t getting more coverage- this is a nothing burger.
The year is 2029, Meta’s GrokBots have taken over the world. They approach Bloomington Indiana, their next target. A kindly older gentleman approaches the army on the outskirts of town.
“Sorry boys, we banned self improving AI back in 2026, you are not allowed here.”
The robots nod and continue onward, parting around the outskirts of town like a river flowing around a rock.
The town is saved. It becomes the last bastion of humanity within 6 months.
It’s basically just writing a letter with extra steps
Banning it outright is ableist, there’s no need include the right to use certain apps in the Constitution.
It’s a product. It can be banned. It’s dumb and shows a general lack of understanding by those in charge but I don’t see what this has to do with the first amendment or the constitution more broadly.
How would this be enforced?
Mass surveillance, which is why it’s misguided for anyone to be happy about this
Easy, if a company in Bloomington says “it was just our AI chatbot,” busted. If a person says “well, Grok told me,” busted - hope you live outside city limits. If a small business uses the slop font, send in the SWAT team, we got 'em boys. Tune all the city’s Flock cameras to watch everyone’s phones and we’ll root out this cancer!
Are they banning witchcraft and unicorns as well?
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2026/11/bloomington-city-council-ai-commission-member-removal-udo
Superintelligence
The council also voted on an ordinance that would bar the distribution and deployment of superintelligent artificial intelligence in Bloomington by any person or corporation. The ordinance passed unanimously.
The ordinance defines superintelligence as AI that outperforms humans at nearly all mental tasks and can act autonomously, such as rewriting its own code or operating without continuous human oversight on tasks that could affect infrastructure, financial markets or public safety.
This applies to the use of superintelligence in Bloomington through a browser, app or other connection.
The ordinance acts as an interim public safety measure to the Bloomington Municipal Code. Through this ordinance, the city is allowed to seek civil penalties, injunctive relief and referral to the county prosecutor.
According to a memo accompanying the ordinance, neither the state nor federal government have enacted safety parameters for artificial superintelligence. To address these dangers during government inaction, the interim public safety perimeter would protect digital networks and local businesses from artificial superintelligence in Bloomington.
The interim measure will only stay in place during federal and state inaction. If the Indiana General Assembly were to establish a safety framework to address artificial superintelligence, the ordinance would expire 91 days after.
The ordinance defines superintelligence as AI that outperforms humans at nearly all mental tasks and can act autonomously,
Oh, so they didn’t actually ban anything.
Yeah this seems like nonsense, but I’m guessing it’s intended more as a show of the desire for stronger regulation, the way they frame it as a stopgap until the higher levels of government come up with something more coherent.
Then again, given they’re apparently using “superintelligence” unironically, it could be they’re just a bunch of spooked Skynet doomers.
This was my takeaway, it’s more of a statement on inaction and inattention by government at higher levels
Yeah. They’re basically banning skynet, to which skynet would reply, “Ned Stark had a piece of paper too.”
“Super intelligence AI”… damn they’re ridiculous
I would like to know what whoever downvoted me thinks is good about the term “super intelligence AI”. Not only it’s redundant, since apparently “SI” is supposed to mean “AI”, it’s also factually wrong twice.
Edit: aww i got downvoted again. Use your words, the downvote button is not a disagree button.
Making laws that allow you to prosecute everyone through unclear definitions or lack of enforceability are inherently fascist/injust as it allows the regime to prosecute the “subhumans” legally.
Let’s GOOOOOO!!
Is this even real?
The council also voted on an ordinance that would bar the distribution and deployment of superintelligent artificial intelligence in Bloomington by any person or corporation. The ordinance passed unanimously.
The ordinance defines superintelligence as AI that outperforms humans at nearly all mental tasks and can act autonomously, such as rewriting its own code or operating without continuous human oversight on tasks that could affect infrastructure, financial markets or public safety.
This applies to the use of superintelligence in Bloomington through a browser, app or other connection.
The ordinance acts as an interim public safety measure to the Bloomington Municipal Code. Through this ordinance, the city is allowed to seek civil penalties, injunctive relief and referral to the county prosecutor.
According to a memo accompanying the ordinance, neither the state nor federal government have enacted safety parameters for artificial superintelligence. To address these dangers during government inaction, the interim public safety perimeter would protect digital networks and local businesses from artificial superintelligence in Bloomington.
The interim measure will only stay in place during federal and state inaction. If the Indiana General Assembly were to establish a safety framework to address artificial superintelligence, the ordinance would expire 91 days after.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2026/11/bloomington-city-council-ai-commission-member-removal-udo
