RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Senator Bernie Sanders believes AI and robotics are the most transformative technologies in humanity’s history—and that we’re not ready for them.
Last October, his office released a report warning that AI and automation could eliminate nearly 100 million U.S. jobs within the next decade, part of a broader campaign warning of the hazards of artificial intelligence that has moved far beyond Capitol Hill. Sanders has spoken at universities, appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and Anderson Cooper’s CNN show, and written op-eds for the New York Times and Fox News. On his YouTube channel, a video of him interviewing one of Anthropic’s Claude models accrued over 5 million views. (Sanders himself rarely uses AI, and has never tried a paid model, he says.)
Across platforms, his message is the same: AI’s development is being shaped by a handful of oligarchs. It’s rapidly becoming more capable, and future systems may be uncontrollable. All this threatens workers, privacy, children’s mental health, and, by further concentrating power, the very foundations of democracy. “The bottom line is, I think we have to stop the development of superintelligence,” he tells TIME.
In March, Sanders introduced a bill that would halt the construction of new AI data centers until federal safeguards are in place. And in June, he sponsored another that would impose a one-time 50% tax, paid in stock, on leading AI companies, which would channel the shares into a public sovereign wealth fund. Though neither proposed legislation has a clear path to passage, Sanders is undeterred. “Making sure the public enjoys their fair share of the profits of the companies is one thing,” he says, “but essentially protecting the people from the damage that AI and robotics may do is even more important to me.”
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