Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has introduced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act to the U.S. Senate, which aims to gain 50% ownership of U.S. AI firms through a sovereign wealth fund. According to the Senator’s webpage, the first thing this would do is establish the Independent Commission for Democratic AI, which has seven bipartisan members nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This body would control 50% of the voting shares of American AI tech companies, meaning it would have the capacity to “block decisions that hurt the American people and to push for policies that help them.”
The Vermont Senator has always been skeptical about AI. Late last year, he called for a complete halt on all data center construction in the U.S. to ensure that the technology benefits everyone and “not just the 1%.” It seems that this idea went nowhere, and his next pitch to the American people is for the establishment of the AI sovereign wealth fund. Sanders’ office estimates that the fund would be valued at $7 trillion at the current value of these companies, and that a 5% annual dividend would grant $1,000 for everyone in the United States.
Aside from that, it would also be used for funding to improve the lifestyle of every American through “decent and dignified standard of living, including the right to health care, education, housing, and a healthy and habitable environment. The bill has just been filed, though, and we still expect it to go through multiple rounds of debates and revisions if it passes at all.
President Donald Trump likes Sanders' idea
In a surprising twist, VP JD Vance said that President Donald Trump likes the idea that the U.S. would gain a controlling stake in every American AI company. The VP likened the AI revolution to the industrial revolution, wherein it’s not the lack of jobs that became the problem that drove several parts of Europe towards communism and fascism. Instead, he claims that it’s the concentration of wealth among a small group of people that became the catalyst for civil strife in the Western world.
“You go back to the industrial revolution. Was mass joblessness the main consequence of the shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy?” the VP asked Steven Bartlett, the host and creator of The Diary of a CEO podcast. “No. But what did happen? Rich people got way richer. And that led to, in Europe, fascism and communism. In fact, your country and my country [are] pretty much the only two countries that successfully avoided either a fascist or communist revolution in response to the industrial revolution.” He also added that capitalists shouldn’t take advantage of workers, which is similar to Sanders’ idea of installing a voting member from the American people (through the government) in every American AI company.
“The average American, the average Brit, the average Western society member has stagnated and people really hate relative poverty,” Vance added. “You can give people iPhones, and you can give people the creature comforts of a 21st-century economy, but you make rich people way richer, you are going to have significant problems.”
But even though it seems that Sanders and the administration are in agreement, Vance says that he does not favor Sanders’ cash redistribution model, wherein the people would receive an annual dividend from the fund. He said that with redistribution, “you turn the poor people into effectively subservients (sic) of the rich people” and that it “never provided a stable society.” Instead, the current administration’s idea, which it calls “pre-distribution” is to give normal people “a seat at the bargaining table.” He says that it’s impossible for a single person to bargain with a company for better wages, but with workers working together, this is where the idea of collective bargaining came from. But the Vice President says that this idea should go beyond economics, as it can also help shape the culture being formed in the age of AI.
You can watch the complete interview below:
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