Bernie Sanders proposes public stake in OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI

Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) is taking his campaign against oligarchy to the tech sector with the upcoming introduction of the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. If passed, the bill would give the public a direct stake in the nation's biggest artificial intelligence (AI) firms. According to Sanders, the law would create a sovereign wealth fund through a one-time 50% tax, paid not in profits, but in corporate stock from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI.

The Vermont senator explained that the legislation aims to give the public a say in determining AI's future. "The federal government would have the power, through its voting shares and an equal representation on each company's board, to block decisions that hurt our citizens and to push for policies that help them," he said in a statement on X. Moreover, the act seeks to guarantee that the trillions of dollars potentially generated by A.I. are used to improve American lives and not simply enrich the richest people in the world.

The specifics of the act are not clear, and Sanders revealed that he will be sharing the details, such as the spending priorities and the mechanics of implementation, in the coming weeks. However, he said that he is treading the matter with caution. "Needless to say, I recognize that for the government to have a major stake in a company, particularly one for which A.I. is only part of its business, is complicated," he said.

AI is on track to generate trillions in wealth, and right now virtually all of it flows to a handful of private shareholders, according to Sanders. His bill would force a fundamental redistribution of that value to the public, making it one of the most ambitious challenges to corporate power in the technology sector in decades, and a direct shot at the growing influence of tech billionaires. His detractors on X, where the post quickly drew thousands of comments, argue that the act represents a "socialist grab" of power. 

The logic behind Sanders' move

Sanders argued that AI was built on the collective intelligence of humanity through "books, songs, artwork, journalism, computer code, scientific research, videos, conversations, images, and ideas spanning generations."  The 84-year-old pointed out that tech oligarchs fed this knowledge into the models "without permission, without acknowledgment, without compensation." This, as per Sanders, represents theft and proof that A.I. is built on the "collective knowledge of humanity," and the wealth generated by it must benefit humanity.

The proposal has its fair share of skeptics. Gary Marcus, a prominent cognitive scientist, noted on X that he was not convinced by this "kind of nationalization by fiat," though he welcomed the senator's intervention. "Even if his approach is not the right way, we do need to work towards an AI that benefits humanity rather than one that exploits it. Unless we take dramatic action (maybe not this action), we won't get there," he added.