Nathaniel Whittemore

What's clear from all of this is that the financial stakes of AI are extremely high, and that realization seems to be finding its way into the policy discourse as well.

Last week, we discussed Elizabeth Warren's op-ed in Time magazine about taxing AI, and I specifically drew a contrast between the data center moratorium shut it all down type of policy and the cut everyone in through taxation type of policy.

Well, apparently data center moratorium leader Bernie Sanders has decided that if we can't shut it down, he wants a stake, or more specifically, he wants the federal government to have a stake.

In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Sanders has basically begun advocating for partial nationalization of the AI industry.

In the piece, he writes...

The question is not whether AI will change the world.

The question is who will own and control that future, who will benefit from it, and who will be hurt by it.

Will AI be used to make life better for working families?

Or will the future of humanity be determined by a handful of billionaires who have promoted and developed AI with virtually no democratic input, who stand to become even richer and more powerful than they are today?

That is the choice before us.

Now, in advocating that the government take a 50% stake in the foundation labs, Sanders is basically arguing that AI models are built on data theft.

He wrote, The creative work of millions of people has essentially been stolen by some of the wealthiest people in the world.

It's time for us to reclaim it.

Since AI is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity.

Sanders said that he will soon introduce the policy in Congress through the AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which, according to Sanders, will give the public a direct ownership stake in major U.S.

companies.

In fact, he wrote, it would create a sovereign wealth fund through a one-time 50% tax, not on the profits of OpenAI, Anthropic, XAI, and other companies, but paid with something far more valuable than that, the stock.

Sanders argues the bill would achieve two crucial things.

One, giving the public a direct role in determining the future of AI via the government's voting shares and 50% control of the board.

And also two, quote, guaranteeing that the trillions of dollars potentially generated by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us, not simply make the richest people in the world even richer.