Wow they banned something that doesn't exist and probably won't exist lol

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.

Ughh… don’t call it superintelligence. That’s not a thing.

This is pure theater, unenforceable, and it wouldn't hold up in court for a second. You can't just add "no takebacksies!" to a law and make it permanent.

Sounds sorta... silly, honestly. Yeah, we need a course correction on AI, or more, we need a significant course correction on big tech. But a city council 'banning' it, without understanding / clarity on what they're banning, is nuts.

Like here they define a bit clearer what they're banning --

ban autonomous systems that can modify their own core algorithms, run code outside their initial sandbox or perform complex tasks without continuous human oversight if those tasks could affect municipal networks, banking, financial markets or public safety.

Most enterprise firewalls would fall into this category, email filters too. Got an email system that automatically updates its algorithm to block malicious attackers? Banned. Even a simple script to help with sorting through financial data -- like doing money-laundering/fraud checks overnight, with an outputed report in the morning for staff to investigate when they get in, would potentially fit the ban criteria.

Most 24/7 continuous monitoring systems that use algorithms to send alerts/notify humans would fall into this category -- they're specifically designed to watch for complex variable combinations, and then alert humans when potential issues shows up, so they're explicitly designed not to be running "continuously under human oversight".

"AI" is such a broad/undefined term, that blanket banning tends to also ban technology based on algorithms that've been around for multiple decades, without significant issues. Sorta like how the EU's initial AI regulations had to make all these absurd carve outs for things like "Credit Scores", because a credit score is technically an algorithm, and they were legislating algorithms.

The ban's also nearly impossible to enforce, given its scope, and where "AI" has its hooks. Like if you ban AI, but all of Microsoft's products have it entrenched at this point... while I don't agree with it, I guarantee you the government / council would rather be in a state of non-compliance with their own law, rather than use Linux.

Don't call it artificial superintellgience FFS ☠️☠️☠️

People are talking about the ban itself but in what fucking world would a law only be repealed with consent of “95% of registered voters” LMAO

What the hell is artificial superintelligence?

you don’t have to change the law if you change what words mean, and in this case, they did not ban llm’s. they banned a thing that does not exist

How would this be enforced?

What does that mean?

What does this law actually ban? ChatGPT? I think the fuck not.

Does it ban something that doesn't exist yet, but might exist someday? If so, what is it, other than a feel-good measure that does nothing?

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.

Unwanted AI on your smartphone while driving through town? That's a fine and a jail sentence. Genius.

With Artificial Super Intelligence now banned, Sam Altman announced plans to direct more r&d resources towards Artificial General Intelligence instead.

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. 

This is supposedly the actual ordinance

https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/2026-10-14-Bloomington-city-council-Ord-2026-29-Artificial-Intelligence-Rollo.pdf

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.

Are they banning witchcraft and unicorns as well?

Sounds like § 307 StGB