Bernie Sanders criticizes AI as ‘the most consequential technology in humanity’ | Bernie Sanders
U.S. senator Bernie Sanders amplified his latest criticism of artificial intelligence on Sunday, explicitly tying the financial ambitions of the “richest people in the world” to the economic insecurity of millions of Americans and calling for a potential moratorium on new data centers.
Sanders, an independent from Vermont who is meeting with the Democratic party, said on CNN’s State of the Union program that he is “very scared” about artificial intelligence. And the senator called it “the most important technology in human history” that will “transform” the United States and the world in ways that have not yet been fully discussed.
“If there are no jobs and people won’t be needed for most things, how will people earn income to support their families, get healthcare, or pay the rent?” Sanders said: “There was not a single serious discussion of this fact in Congress.”
Days before he was scheduled to help inaugurate New York mayor-elect and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, Sanders said the “richest people in the world” were pushing technology. He singled out tech giants Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel when questioning their motives.
“Do you think they’re staying up at night worrying about people working and how this technology will affect those people?” Sanders said: “They’re not. They’re doing this to get richer and more powerful.”
Sanders also pointed to studies showing dependence on artificial intelligence chatbots for emotional support. “If this trend continues, what does it mean that as the years go by, people get their support, their interaction, from a machine rather than from people?” he said. “What does this mean for humanity?”
This theme was further addressed in the State of the Union by Republican senator from Alabama and co-sponsor Katie Britt. legislation To protect minors from chatbots.
Recommended measurement – Custody (Protection) over AI Relationships Act – aims to ban providing AI companions to minors. It also requires AI companions to disclose their non-human status and lack of professional qualifications. The measure aims to establish criminal liability if companies make AI companions available to minors who solicit or produce sexually explicit content or encourage self-harm or violence.
Britt said he’s interviewed parents who told him “devastating stories about their kids, chatbots robbing them of everything, isolating them from their parents, talking to them about suicide.”
He said: “If these AI companies can build the most amazing machines in the world, they can do us all a service by putting in place appropriate guardrails that not only don’t allow minors to use these things, but also constantly tell the user that they’re not a doctor or a psychiatrist, but ‘I’m a machine.'”
Britt said AI companies should be held criminally liable if they create spaces where chatbots “engage in these kinds of lustful and sexual relationships with young people or encourage suicide.”
Sanders and Britt’s remarks reveal a rare convergence between left and right on the issue of governing artificial intelligence. Sanders said Congress should “robustly examine the impact of artificial intelligence on our nation’s mental health.”
“I’m very concerned that kids are spending all day getting emotional support,” she added. “So we need to look into this thoroughly.” The senator said lawmakers should “think seriously” about a moratorium on new AI data centers.
“Frankly, I think you need to slow down this process,” he said. “It’s not enough for the oligarchs to tell us: ‘It’s coming, you just adapt.’ What are they talking about? Will they guarantee healthcare for all people?”
“What are they going to do when people are unemployed? What are they going to do, make housing affordable? So I think we need to take a deep breath and I think we need to slow this down.”
