Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon call for curbs on AI NPR Congress has been 'asleep at the wheel' over AI, says Bernie Sanders - US politics live theguardian.com AI skeptics convene in Washington to urge action, as Congre...
Left-wing socialist Bernie Sanders and MAGA strategist Steve Bannon took to the same stage on Tuesday to rail against the AI industry and its leadership, in a sign of how spiraling worries over the rapidly advancing technology are upending political alliances. Still, the pair showed little sign of agreement over how the technology should be regulated.
Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, and Bannon, a former Trump White House adviser, both appeared at the "Pro-Human Assembly" on Tuesday, alongside a diverse set of speakers calling for curbs on AI development.
Speaking to nearly 300 people packed into a Washington, D.C., ballroom, Sanders raised concerns about AI surpassing human intelligence and escaping human control. He said he will be introducing legislation to permanently ban the development of "superintelligent" AI , with Congressman Greg Casar, D-Texas, next week.
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"Despite living in a so-called democracy, the public has had virtually no input into the AI revolution that's transforming the world," Sanders said. "Congress, under both Democratic and Republican control, has been asleep at the wheel, and we now have a president whose ignorance regarding this issue is truly embarrassing."
Sanders said decisions about AI are being made by tech leaders who are motivated by profits, adding that society shouldn't let AI developers continue to improve their products if company leaders admit they are losing control of the technology.
He said that he hopes President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will negotiate a treaty to pause advanced AI development when they meet at the White House next week.
Bannon, who took the stage directly after Sanders, called AI the defining issue of our time and laid out a nationalist approach to the technology. He said tech leaders have money and power but they don't have the public's trust.
"We're not doomers," he said. "But we aren't gonna give these guys carte blanche. Their arrogance is overwhelming."
He said the U.S. should place curbs on any exchange of chips, tech or knowledge between the U.S. and China.
"Kick them out," he said. "Take all Chinese nationals out of the labs and back to mainland China."
The assembly - an all-day event - was organized by the Future of Life Institute , a nonprofit advocacy group that issued 33 principles in March to guide their " pro-human" movement . Those principles include that humans must remain in charge of AI, people should retain agency and liberty and AI companies should be held accountable for the impact of their technology.
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The event comes at a time when concerns over the spread of data centers, the growing influence of AI and warnings from AI insiders caused leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI to call for a slowdown in AI development to keep the technology under human control. At the same time, lawmakers have been urging House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass AI safeguards.
Johnson has said he supports guardrails for AI, but that companies need to be responsible for policing safety, not Congress.
"We cannot put a moratorium on this because China will overlap us, and that's the challenge," Johnson told CNN over the weekend. "If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China, and that is a threat to every single American."
But in a nod to voter angst over AI, the House is slated to vote on legislation as early as Tuesday addressing one slice of the issue - the proliferation of data centers. The bill, known as the Ratepayer Protection Act, is designed to shield Americans from spikes in energy costs tied to the construction of data centers.
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