Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) urged Congress to have more robust conversations about the future of artificial intelligence, predicting the rapidly advancing technology will continue to carry sweeping implications for the United States and the world.
“I see growing awareness, but I don’t think Congress is moving anywhere near fast enough,” the Vermont senator said during an interview, speaking about AI’s effect on global warfare, power dynamics, and relationships.
As the once-novel technology takes root in systems large and small, Sanders called on leaders to consider how AI will change war, and what that means for humanity.
“I think we are not all that far away from the development of robotic soldiers,” he told NBC News, as the Pentagon is increasingly molding AI into the military’s infrastructure. “Right now, politicians — at least sometimes — have to worry about loss of life when they decide to go to war. If you don’t have to worry about loss of life, and what you worry about is loss of robots, what does that mean for issues of war and peace globally? It’s a big issue.”
Sanders, known for his active role in pushing socialist-style policies in the left-wing faction of the Democratic Party, also expressed concerns that, without proper management, AI will be another tool that powerful corporations will wield at the expense of workers. Leading companies such as OpenAI, which operates ChatGPT, should be broken up, the senator said, as he appeared to endorse a form of technology redistribution that would benefit “ordinary people.”
“When I talk about breaking these [companies] up, I mean creating a situation where this new technology is designed to benefit ordinary people, not just designed by a handful of billionaires to make them even richer,” Sanders said, later expressing fear that AI has given “people on top extraordinary control when they have that knowledge.”
Sanders is just one of many voices in Washington pushing for expanded government control over AI, a tactic they believe will prevent powerful individuals from controlling and shaping information and reality in harmful ways.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday demanded tighter federal oversight of state regulations in order to ensure any restrictions are in line with the White House’s priorities.
“Overregulation by the States is threatening to undermine this Growth Engine. Some States are even trying to embed DEI ideology into AI models, producing ‘Woke AI’ (Remember Black George Washington?). We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes,” the president said.
The Trump administration has pushed to capitalize on the technology as it seeks to claim victory in the global AI race. To generate that outcome, data centers powering AI are going up across the country, often sparking concerns about the costs it spells for the community.
This week, Sanders sounded the alarm about the price humans are paying for rapid technological advancement.
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“People are worried that right now, many young people, teenagers, are relying on companionship from AI rather than fellow human beings,” Sanders said. “If kids today have AI as their best friends, as the ‘people’ they relate to, where they spend most of their time rather than other human beings, what kind of change does that mean for humanity?”
“We’re talking about incredibly deep, deep issues of what it means to be human,” he concluded. “This issue needs enormous discussion, and I hope we can provoke some of it.”
