[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 104 (Monday, June 22, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3025-S3026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I want to say a few words about what I
consider to be one of the most important issues not only facing our
country but facing the world, and that is the advent of artificial
intelligence, which most experts agree will almost certainly be the
most transformational technology in the history of humanity. It will
profoundly impact the lives of every man, woman, and child in our
country.
Before I go further, I find it rather odd that, whereas everybody
agrees that artificial intelligence is going to have a huge impact on
our society, as of today, there has not been one significant piece of
legislation passed in Congress to address the impacts of AI.
Why is that? Why is it that when all of the experts say AI is going
to impact the economy, it is going to impact privacy, it is an
existential threat to humanity, not one piece of legislation.
And the answer is, we have a corrupt campaign finance system, and the
AI industry, like a number of other industries, is prepared to spend
hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars against any Member of
Congress that says: Do you know what? Maybe we should protect our kids.
Maybe we should protect our workers of AI.
So, as of today, despite all over the country people expressing very
real and deep concerns about AI, not one significant piece of
legislation has been passed.
Leading experts in the AI industry tell us that AI will radically
change our economy and, quite possibly, result in the disappearance of
tens of millions of jobs over the next decade.
Psychologists tell us that the mental health challenges facing our
young people are unprecedented and are resulting in increased isolation
as kids experience AI. If left unchecked, our children's ``best
friends'' may not be other kids but AI bots.
Civil libertarians worry that AI will be able to analyze every email
that we send, every text, every phone call, every website visit, every
purchase that we make, every visit to a doctor's office or a hospital;
and that, as a result of all of that, absorbing all of that
information, our privacy rights may very well become eviscerated.
Political scientists worry that AI could threaten the integrity of
our elections and political institutions, where, as a result of so-
called deepfakes, voters will find it increasingly difficult to tell
the difference between truth and fiction.
We are already seeing it. We are already seeing words being put into
individuals' mouths that they never said, and it is becoming
increasingly difficult to tell truth from fiction.
Military experts worry that AI will transform the nature of warfare,
making it easier for government leaders to go to war, kill whole lots
of people, with less political consequence because they are replacing
human soldiers and military personnel with robots and drones.
Further, Nobel Prize winners like Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, who is
considered to be one of the godfathers of the creation of AI, as well
as many other experts, worry that, as AI becomes smarter than humans,
it could eventually function independently of human control, with
potentially catastrophic consequences.
As everybody knows, the AI industry is dominated by a handful of huge
corporations owned by some of the very wealthiest people on Earth. As
we speak, multibillionaires--including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark
Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Sergey Brin, and others--have poured
hundreds of billions of dollars into the development and implementation
of AI. Further, through their super PACS, as I mentioned a moment ago,
they are spending huge amounts of money to defeat candidates who dare
to suggest that AI should be seriously regulated.
Make no mistake about it. The question is not whether AI will change
the world. It will. The question is, Who will own and control and
determine the future? Who will benefit from AI, and who will be hurt by
AI? Will AI be used to improve the quality of life for working
families? Will it help us eliminate poverty and extend our life
expectancy? Will it give us more time to spend with friends and family?
Or will the future of humanity be determined by a handful of the
wealthiest people on Earth, who are only concerned about more wealth
and more power for themselves? That is the question before us.
Let us be clear. AI was not created out of thin air. It was not a
brilliant idea that just popped into Mark Zuckerberg's head or Elon
Musk's imagination. The foundation of AI is our collective
intelligence.
Let me repeat that: The foundation of AI is based on our collective
human intelligence--our books, songs, artwork, journalism, computer
code, scientific research, videos, conversations, images, and ideas
spanning generations. It is our tweets, our Facebook posts, our
TikTok videos, our Reddit comments. It is everything that human beings
produce and that is absorbed into the digital world.
And that is not just the opinion of Bernie Sanders. According to Sam
Altman, the head of OpenAI, AI models were trained on our ``collective
experience, knowledge,'' and ``learnings of humanity.''
The reality is that Big Tech oligarchs have fed all of this
knowledge, based on tens of millions of hours of labor, into their AI
models without permission--without permission--without acknowledgment,
and without compensation. In other words, the creative work of many
millions of people--writers, artists, musicians, journalists, teachers,
scientists, and ordinary citizens--has been stolen by the wealthiest
people on Earth.
The time has come for us to take back what was stolen from us. As a
society, we can no longer sit back and allow a handful of Big Tech
oligarchs
[[Page S3026]]
to determine the future of this revolutionary technology with no
democratic input--with no input from the people of our country.
Since the foundation of AI is built on the collective knowledge of
humanity, the American people must be able to control the future of
this technology, not just the wealthiest people on Earth. Further, the
wealth that is generated by AI must be used to benefit ordinary
Americans, not just Mr. Musk or Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Ellison,
and the other Big Tech billionaires; not just the venture capitalists
in Silicon Valley or the vulture funds on Wall Street, who see AI as
the next great wealth-extracting machine.
And that is why I have introduced two very important pieces of
legislation dealing with AI.
The first bill I introduced with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez and would impose a moratorium on the construction of new AI data
centers.
This moratorium would remain in effect until: One, strong national
safeguards are in place to ensure that AI is safe and effective. That
means the government reviews and approves AI products before they are
released.
Two, the economic gains of AI and robotics must benefit workers, not
just the wealthy owners of Big Tech.
And, three, AI data centers must not increase electricity costs or
utility prices, harm communities, or destroy the environment.
When Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and I first introduced that
legislation, 3 months ago, the response from many in the establishment
was: This is radical. This is crazy. What are you doing?
Well, guess what. According to a recent poll from Data for Progress,
63 percent of the American people now support a national moratorium on
the construction of new AI data centers for at least 1 year, including
67 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of Independents, and 58 percent of
Republicans.
If you want bipartisanship, take a look at the support we are getting
for a moratorium on the construction of new data centers.
And according to Gallup, 71 percent of the American people oppose the
construction of new AI data centers in their local communities.
To date, as it happens, more than 50 cities, towns, and local
communities have enacted a moratorium on new data centers. The
legislatures in two States, Maine and New York, have also passed
moratoriums. And at least 75 data center projects, worth $130 billion,
were successfully blocked or delayed across the country during the
first quarter of this year alone.
In other words, a moratorium on the construction of new AI data
centers is not such a radical idea. It is, in fact, what is supported
by the overwhelming majority of the American people.
A moratorium will give us time--time to understand the risks, time to
protect working families, time to defend our democracy, and time to
ensure that this technology works for everybody, not just the
billionaire owners.
One important step we can take to make AI work for all of us is
through the creation of a sovereign wealth fund, and that is why, just
last week, I introduced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act.
This legislation would give the public a direct ownership stake in
the largest AI companies in America. It would allow the American
people, through their government, to own 50 percent of the stock of the
major AI companies in our country.
And, if passed, this legislation would do three very important
things. First, it would give the American people a direct role in
determining the future of this technology. No longer would the future
of AI and the transformation of human life that it will bring be
dictated by fewer than a dozen Big Tech oligarchs.
Under this bill, an independent commission would have the power,
through its voting shares--and that is 50 percent of the voting shares
on every major AI company. So the public would have the ability to
block decisions that hurt ordinary people and to push for policies that
help them.
This independent commission would consist of seven members nominated
by the Congress, selected by the President, and confirmed by the
Senate.
Second, it would require large companies that operate both AI and
non-AI businesses to break up those businesses, ensuring the public
receives an ownership stake in the AI business.
Third, this bill would guarantee that the economic benefits generated
by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us, not simply to make
the very richest people in the world even richer.
The sovereign wealth fund that would be created under this
legislation would be worth an estimated $7 trillion. What would we do
with it? What would we do with the $7 trillion?
Well, we would require this fund to pay an annual dividend of 5
percent directly to the American people. Eventually, if these AI
companies continue to grow as rapidly as some analysts expect, the
wealth that this bill generates could be used to not only provide
direct payment to every man, woman, and child in the country, but it
could be used to ensure that every person has a decent and dignified
standard of living, including the right to healthcare, education,
housing, and a healthy and habitable environment.
And let me be very clear, if the value of these companies goes down,
as some have suggested, the companies would bear the losses, not the
Federal Government. Under no circumstances would these companies
receive a bailout from U.S. taxpayers.
The idea of a sovereign wealth fund is not an original idea. In fact,
over 100 sovereign wealth funds exist all over the world.
Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, was funded
from the country's abundance in oil and is now worth more than $2
trillion. Instead of a few oil executives pocketing all the benefits of
this national resource, Norway made the decision that the wealth
created from it should be used to improve life for all of its people.
This concept also exists right here in the United States. Fifty years
ago, Alaska--the State of Alaska--created a sovereign wealth fund from
the State's oil revenues, and for decades it has paid dividends
directly to Alaskans. In 2022, that check was over $3,000 per person,
and it has gone up and down since.
The principle behind this legislation is simple: When a public
resource generates wealth, the public should share in that wealth. In
this case, artificial intelligence is being built on a public resource
far more valuable than oil: the accumulated knowledge, creativity, and
labor of humanity throughout human history.
The bottom line: The future of AI and the fate of humanity must not
be decided behind closed doors by a handful of Big Tech CEOs who are
the wealthiest people on Earth. It must not be dictated by billionaires
seeking to maximize their power and profit.
It must be decided by workers, parents, teachers, artists,
scientists, communities, and the American people. It is our future. We
must decide it.
Now, I understand that the opposition to this concept is going to be
very, very strong from the AI industry, but I think the time is long
overdue for Members of the Senate, Members of the Congress to begin
standing with the American people and not just with the billionaires
and their super PACs.
This is an enormously consequential issue. Let's stand with the
American people. Let's do it.
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