Bernie Sanders Gets Tough on AI and Calls Out Musk, Bezos, and Others

(Dreamstime)

Key Points

• Senators Bernie Sanders and Katie Britt are united in their concern over artificial intelligence, despite their differing political views.
• Sanders criticized Big Tech CEOs, stating they push AI to increase wealth and power, without concern for its impact on working people.
• Britt highlighted the risks of AI for minors, citing a survey that found 64% of US teens use chatbots, with one-third using them daily.

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Katie Britt hold fundamentally opposite political views but are united in turning up the heat on artificial intelligence.

On Sunday, both called out Big Tech and Congress for not doing enough to protect Americans from the risks of what Sanders called “the most consequential technology of our lifetime.”

Sanders, an independent from Vermont, came down hard on Big Tech’s biggest names, telling CNN’s State of the Union that the wealthiest—X owner Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for example—are pushing AI “to get richer and more powerful.”

“What is their motive? You think they’re staying up nights worrying…? They are not,” Sanders told host Jake Tapper.

AI’s impact on the labor force and America’s kids are two other issues for Sanders.

Musk, along with a host of other AI backers, has been clear that AI will cost jobs. Right now, AI can replace almost 12% of American jobs, according to a survey released last month by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“If there are no jobs and humans won’t be needed for most things, how do people get an income to feed their families, to get healthcare or to pay the rent? There’s not been one serious word of discussion in the Congress about that reality,” Sanders said.

Britt is co-sponsor of a measure to protect minors from chatbots. In a survey released in early December, the Pew Research Institute found that 64% of U.S. teens use chatbots and a third use them every day.

The Alabama Republican has two children, 15 and 16, and told Tapper that there are many parents like her worried about AI, particularly on social media.

Britt specifically mentioned chatbots on Meta that can be used by children “as young as 9 years old.”

“I have met with a number of parents who have told me devastating stories about their children where chatbots ultimately…had isolated them from their parents, had talked to them about suicide…,” she told Tapper.

Companies, Britt said, are taking action. She pointed to OpenAI’s new parental controls and age restrictions as an example.

Still, Britt said more needs to be done and government must pick up the slack.

“Look, those are definitely steps in the right direction…,” Britt said of what Big Tech is doing. “How many parents…are going to have to come and tell us a devastating story before we actually pass legislation?”

Sanders called for an in-depth study of AI’s impact on America’s mental health.

“And if we conclude that these technologies are creating more isolation, more loneliness, more mental illness, you know what? We have got to figure out a way to stop it,” he said.

Then, Sanders criticized members of Congress for dragging their feet on AI legislation. He came back to the power wielded by Big Tech leaders through their wealth.

AI “is being pushed by the wealthiest—a handful of the wealthiest and most powerful people on Earth,” Sanders told CNN. “Can they be stopped? I don’t know.”

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