Sen.
The bill, titled the “American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act,” would create a fund applying a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the country’s biggest AI companies.
“It gives the American people the ability to prevent AI developments that will negatively impact their lives,” Sanders said about the legislation. “This revolutionary technology cannot be controlled by a handful of the wealthiest people on earth whose sole goal is to make as much money as they can.”
For the bill to be applicable to a company, Sanders said that the companies would have to be generating at least $200 million a year. While he hasn’t spoken with the administration regarding the bill, he believes there is bipartisan support for it among lawmakers.
Sanders blamed Congress’ inability to pass legislation reining in AI companies on the influence they have in politics.
“Any member of Congress who begins to talk about the need for sensible regulation one way or another will be hit with huge amounts of campaign ads from AI, which has unlimited amounts of money to spend on politics,” Sanders said.
Sanders, a ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, has been active in oversight on AI, joining Rep.
The legislation Thursday comes as Congress considers solutions to regulating the implementation of AI throughout the country.
Sanders discussed the legislation during a speech on the Senate floor earlier this month.
“If these AI companies continue to grow as dramatically as many analysts expect, then the value of the sovereign wealth fund created under this bill would grow as well, and the benefits to the American people would grow along with it,” Sanders said, according to the Congressional Record.
“No longer would the future of AI and the transformation of human life that it will bring be dictated by a handful of Big Tech oligarchs,” Sanders said. “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 the public.”