Artificial Intelligence

Floor Speech

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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, we are at the beginning of the most profound technological revolution in world history, a revolution which will bring unimaginable changes to every aspect of our society.

Artificial intelligence and robotics will impact our economy, our political lives, our privacy, our emotional well-being, our environment, and even our survival--the survival of humanity on this planet.

The scale, scope, and speed of this change will be unprecedented. That is not the view of Bernie Sanders. That is the view of some of the most knowledgeable people in the world who have developed AI, who study AI.

According to Demis Hassabis, the head of Google's DeepMind--the head of Google's DeepMind--the AI revolution will be 10 times bigger than the industrial revolution and 10 times faster. In other words, the AI revolution will have 100 times the impact that the industrial revolution had.

People left the farms. They went to work in factories. People left factories. They went to work in offices. According to the head of Google's DeepMind, this revolution will be 100 times more impactful.

Mr. President, it is not just what the leaders of the AI companies are saying. Take a look at what they are doing. This year, four--four-- AI companies are spending almost $700 billion to build out data centers across this country. As a percentage of GDP, that is 10 times greater than what we spent each year on Moon landings, going to the Moon.

Despite the extraordinary importance of this issue and the speed at which it is progressing, AI has gotten far too little discussion here in Congress. I fear very much that while the American people are deeply concerned about the economic, the spiritual, the political impact of AI, Congress is totally unprepared to respond to the existential changes that are taking place. We are way, way, way behind where the American people are in terms of their concerns.

Here are, in my view, a few questions, just a few, that Members of Congress and the American people should be asking.

Question No. 1, a rather obvious question: Who is pushing the AI and robotics revolution? Ordinary people going up and saying: Hey, we got to automate factories. We got to do that. Who is pushing it? Well, I think we all know what the answer is. The answer is Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Ellison.

These are some of the wealthiest people in the world, and they are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI and robotics. Okay. Fair enough.

Why are they doing it? Why are these multibillionaires investing huge sums of money into these new technologies? Do you think it is because they are staying up nights and they are saying: My goodness, 60 percent of the American people are struggling economically? They are living paycheck to paycheck. Can't afford groceries. They can't afford housing. They can't afford healthcare. And that is why we are going to push these technologies, to improve life for ordinary Americans.

Well, maybe, but I doubt that very much. I think the answer is obvious. These multibillionaires are investing in AI and robotics because those investments will increase their wealth and power exponentially. They will make massive profits. In other words, the richest and most powerful people on Earth will become even richer and more powerful.

And another question I think that we obviously should be asking is: What will the impacts of AI and robotics be on our society? How is it going to impact us? Pretty obvious question.

In my view, and according to the people who have studied this issue extensively, including Nobel Prize winners, AI and robotics will bring about the most rapid societal transformation in human history. Let me repeat. AI and robotics will bring about the most rapid societal transformation in human history.

Among other things, AI and robotics will transform our economy with massive job displacement. It will impact our emotional well-being and how we relate to each other as human beings. It will lead to a massive invasion of privacy. It will threaten our democratic institutions, and it will bring severe harm to our environment.

Further and frighteningly, some very knowledgeable people fear that what was once seen as science fiction could soon become a reality, and that is superintelligent AI could become smarter than humans, could become independent of human control, and pose an existential threat to the human race. In other words, this is what they used to make science fiction movies about.

But some of the most knowledgeable people on Earth, including people who have helped develop this technology, actually believe human beings could lose control over the planet to artificial intelligence.

Question No. 4: What happens to working people, to ordinary Americans during this revolutionary upheaval? Well, don't take my word for it. I am not an expert on it. Let's hear what the leaders in the industry are saying in their own words, not Bernie Sanders. This is what the people who have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in the industry are saying.

Elon Musk, who has made massive investments in AI and robotics, recently said:

AI and robots will replace all jobs.

Now, is Mr. Musk exaggerating? Is he wrong? I don't know. But I think you might want to take a listen to one of the most powerful people on Earth, who is investing very heavily in these technologies.

Bill Gates, another multibillionaire investing heavily in AI, he predicted that:

[H]umans won't be needed for most things.

Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI--the CEO of Microsoft AI-- said most white-collar work:

[W]ill be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.

Not 12 to 18 years, 12 to 18 months. That is the CEO of Microsoft AI. Somebody might be a little concerned about that here in Congress.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Jeff Bezos, the fourth richest man alive, who is worth over $200 billion, is seeking to raise $100 billion to purchase factories all over America. OK? One of the richest guys in the world is seeking to raise $100 billion to purchase factories all over the country.

His goal: Replace the millions of workers who are employed in these plants with robots. Maybe somebody here might be raising some concerns about the fact that we are on the beginning of the end of manufacturing jobs in the United States.

And for Mr. Bezos, this is not just an idle threat. According to The New York Times, Mr. Bezos plans to fully automate Amazon operations. He owns Amazon. He wants to fully automate Amazon operations, beginning by replacing at least 600,000 workers with robots.

So this is a guy who has a track record. That is what he is doing right now; and he wants to expand that vision all across the country, basically wipe out manufacturing jobs in America and get rid of millions of workers.

Why does he want to do it? Well, the answer is fairly obvious: Because AI and robots will cost employers far less than human labor. Robots work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Robots do not need sick days or healthcare. They don't take Christmas or New Year's Day off. They will end up costing employers a fraction of what human labor costs.

As Dario Amodei, the head of Anthropic, has said: AI isn't a substitute for specific human jobs but rather a general labor substitute for humans.

And according to Open AI's charter, its charter, its mission is to build:

[H]ighly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.

In other words, what these guys are working toward is creating an AI which can do virtually any job better than a human being can do. What are the impacts of that? Well, you know, we might want to have a discussion about that here in the Congress.

As the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I released a number of months ago a well-researched report, finding that AI automation and robotics could replace nearly 100 million jobs in America over the next decade--100 million jobs-- including 47 percent of truck drivers, 64 percent of accountants, and 89 percent of fast-food workers, among many other occupations.

There are towns and cities in America we are already seeing a lot of driverless vehicles. In Texas now, you have 18-wheelers going down the road, and nobody is driving those trucks. And everything being equal, that will be the future unless we begin to start talking about it and figure out how we make AI robotics work for workers, not just the richest people on Earth.

We are already--not next year, not 10 years from now--we are already starting to see the impact of AI on the working class in this country. Researchers at Stanford released a paper in November called ``Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence'' that found that there has already been a 16- percent relative decline in employment for younger workers in jobs exposed to AI like computer programming and customer service. Further, 42 percent of new college graduates are underemployed.

At the same time, for every new job posting, there are now, on average, 242 job applicants. In other words, for our young people, getting a job is going to be increasingly difficult.

If OpenAI is successful in building what they want to build--``highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work''--I have a very simple question that we might be discussing here on the floor of the Senate: What happens to those workers? How will they be able to find new jobs if there are no jobs to find? How are they going to feed their families? How are they going to buy healthcare? How are they going to stay alive if AI robotics eliminate millions of jobs and create massive unemployment? How will people survive if they have no income?

How do government programs like Social Security and Medicare survive if workers are not paying taxes? If you don't work, you don't pay taxes.

Another question that we must be discussing: What impact will AI have on our ability to relate to each other as human beings? What impact will it have on our emotional well-being?

Well, work is one of the ways we connect to each other. In many cases, work also gives our lives meaning and purpose. We all, whether we are doctors or janitors, scientists or snowplow operators, want to serve our communities and be productive members of society. We want to give back. What happens when millions of people lose their jobs, their meaning and purpose, and their source of connection to each other?

I am also concerned--and it is not just me; parents all over this country are deeply concerned--about the impact AI is having on the emotional well-being of our kids and, in fact, of all people.

According to a recent poll by Common Sense Media, 72 percent of American teenagers say they have used AI for companionship, and more than half do so regularly.

So let's take a deep breath and ask ourselves a simple question: What does it mean for our young people to form friendships and become emotionally dependent on AI while at the same time becoming increasingly isolated from other human beings?

Does anyone in America think that the past 20 years of social media have been good and healthy for children's mental health and cognitive capabilities? I suspect most people understand that is not the case.

The statistics are quite clear. Mental health among young people is in crisis. According to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, one in five young people has a diagnosed mental health condition such as anxiety or depression. From 2016 to 2023, the prevalence of anxiety has increased by over 60 percent.

Further, and very importantly, studies indicate that there has been a cognitive decline in young people in our country and, in fact, in countries all over the world. In America today, more students are reading below a basic level than 20 years ago. It appears that the more time kids spend on screens, the worse it is for their brains.

Does anyone really think we should now entrust the same big tech companies that have gotten our kids hooked on screens and social media with even more power over our children's well-being and development? That is a question we need to be discussing long and hard.

Here is another question that I think we should be asking: Will AI result in a massive invasion of our privacy and our civil liberties?

For decades, companies have been collecting our personal information--what we search for online, where we visit, who we talk to, what we purchase. Now AI makes it possible for someone to quickly analyze all of that disparate information, find patterns, and create profiles of us.

Larry Ellison--the second wealthiest person on Earth and a major investor in AI--predicts an AI-powered surveillance state is coming wherein ``citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on.''

Last week, in my office, I had an extremely interesting experience. I spoke with Anthropic's AI Claude about the privacy risks posed by AI.

Here is what Claude told me:

When companies and governments have detailed profiles of millions of people, they have power over those people in ways most Americans don't fully grasp. They can manipulate your choices, predict your behavior, and influence your thinking.

That is from Claude. I don't know if you are supposed to quote AI, but that is what AI said.

In other words, with AI, we will reach the stage where every phone call, every email, every text, and every bank and medical record could be analyzed in a matter of minutes. Do we trust companies that have made billions of dollars in selling our information with this extraordinary power to instantly know everything about us?

My fear is that if we allow the current situation to continue, privacy as a human right will disappear.

Here is another question that needs to be seriously discussed: What impact will AI have on our democracy? We are already facing enormous threats from a corrupt campaign finance system, et cetera. What impact will AI have on our democracy?

AI will mean that images, statements, and videos you see from public officials and candidates may be totally false. In other words, words can be put into the mouths of individuals in a way that it is virtually impossible to detect.

Let me give you one rather personal example. Here is an image of a guy named Bernie Sanders, a Senator from Vermont. In this image or on this video, Senator Bernie Sanders is promoting a website that provides a government rebate. There is just one problem: I never said the words that they have coming out of my mouth. There is no government rebate. This whole thing is a total scam. Well, I must say the picture is not all that bad. But this is something we are going to see more and more of.

This is obviously not something just known to me; the so-called deepfakes have been created of many well-known people. Sometimes you are seeing people whom you know who say things that sound a little weird. Why are they saying that? Well, do you know what? They are not saying that. It is a fake.

I want you to appreciate that if 2 days before an election, a candidate gets up there and says all of these wild and crazy things and you say ``Wow. Why is that guy saying that?'' Well, do you know what? He or she may not be saying that. It may be a total fake.

The line between reality, which is what is true, and misinformation, which is the distortion of truth, is increasingly being blurred. We are seeing that every day on the internet.

If we cannot distinguish between reality and misinformation, what will, in fact, happen to our democratic institutions? It is an issue I think we need to be thinking about.

Further, what impact is AI having on our environment?

AI requires zillions of calculations. Those calculations require huge data centers, which, in turn, require a massive amount of electricity and water. For example, Meta is building a data center in Louisiana that is the size of Manhattan that will use as much electricity as 1.6 million homes. One data center will use as much electricity as 1.6 million homes.

The increased demand for electricity is leading to higher electricity rates. Over the past 5 years, wholesale electricity costs have increased by up to 267 percent in areas near data centers. Further, this increased demand will drive a massive expansion of fossil fuels when we are already seeing the devastating impacts of the global crisis of climate change.

A further question: Does AI pose an existential risk to our planet and to the survival of humanity?

It is rather a fundamental question that I think we might want to be discussing, so let me pose it again.

Does AI pose an existential risk to our planet and to the survival of humanity?

This guy is named Dr. Geoffrey Hinton. He is considered by most people to be the godfather of AI. He did the groundbreaking work which led us to where we are today. He received a Nobel Prize in Physics a few years ago. What Dr. Hinton says is that there is a 10- to 20- percent chance they wipe us out.

Many of the most knowledgeable people on this issue of AI believe that AI will become smarter than humans. It is not a question of whether that will happen; it is a question of when that will happen. AI has already developed concerning patterns. AI, today, can lie, it can cheat, and it can blackmail. In other words, we already are beginning to lose control of AI.

What happens when AI becomes smarter than we are? This concern about superintelligence is why leading experts like the godfather of AI, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, have warned there is a real chance that AI could wipe out humanity. I don't want to get people too nervous, but that is what some people are saying.

It is not just Hinton; there are a number of leading people. I was in California last month, talking to a number of people in the industry. The idea that humans can lose control of AI and that AI can act independently and cause extraordinary damage to the human race is not just science fiction; it is what many of these guys believe.

That leads to my final set of questions: Where is the Congress?

Now, it is hard not to imagine that these issues we are talking about are of enormous consequence to every man, woman, and child in this country. And this is not new news. Poll after poll shows the American people are deeply concerned about the economic impacts on their kids, the existential threats, et cetera.

So where is Congress? What exactly have the House and the Senate done so far to address the extraordinary challenges posed by artificial intelligence?

The answer: Not much.

Well, why has Congress been totally ineffective on this issue?

The answer will not surprise the American people: We have a corrupt campaign finance system, and too often, Members of Congress are worried about their campaign contributions rather than the needs of their constituents.

The AI oligarchs, some of the wealthiest people in the country running enormously profitable and well-funded companies, have already spent over $150 million buying influence, $150 million telling Congress: Leave us alone. We got it. Don't get involved in these issues. We will determine--we, the wealthiest people on Earth--will determine the future of humanity.

Meanwhile, last week, the Trump administration put out a ``comprehensive'' legislative framework on AI that is all of four pages long--not quite so comprehensive. In the midst of a massive and unprecedented attack on the working class of this country, the Trump administration's solution says:

Congress should not create any new federal rulemaking body to regulate AI.

Leave the multibillionaires running the industry alone. They make a lot of campaign contributions--the rich are getting richer. Leave them alone.

In the midst of a massive and unprecedented attack on our humanity, the Trump administration's solution says:

States should not be permitted to regulate AI development.

In other words, instead of the U.S. Congress representing the interests of ordinary Americans, the Trump administration and many Members of Congress--in both parties, by the way--want to allow a handful of billionaires to race forward to develop AI for increased power and wealth for themselves. That is the bad news, and it is pretty scary news.

Now, here is the good news: The American people--despite the inactivity of Congress, the American people are fighting back. In community after community, Americans are organizing against data centers that are powering the AI revolution, and they are winning, taking on very powerful corporations. And many of these communities are deeply red, conservative; some are progressive. But ordinary people look around them and say: You know what. We don't think these data centers are going to do our community any good. They are going to raise our rates, put pressure on our water, destroy the local environment. We don't want them. In fact, more than 100 local communities around the country have enacted moratoriums on data centers, and 12 States are pushing forward with statewide moratorium proposals.

And here is an important point that I think has not gotten anywhere near the discussion that it deserves. Three years ago, in March of 2023, more than 1,000 leading AI experts, including Elon Musk, Yoshua Bengio, Stuart Russell, and many, many others--these are leaders in industry--called for AI labs to ``immediately pause for at least 6 months,'' and if such a pause were not enacted, called on governments to ``step in and institute a moratorium.''

They recognized that ``advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.''

And then these experts--again, these are some of the most knowledgeable people on AI in the world--they asked a series of questions:

Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?

These are some of the leading and most knowledgeable people in the AI industry 3 years ago. They concluded:

Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.

And I agree with what these scientists and industry leaders said. We need to slow down the development of AI to give democracy, to give ordinary people, a chance to catch up.

Unfortunately, several years have come and gone since this letter has come out, and there has been no pause, and there has been no action of significance on the part of Congress.

And that is why I will be introducing legislation tomorrow to ban the development of new AI data centers. A moratorium will give us the chance to figure out how to make sure that AI benefits the working families of this country, not just a handful of billionaires who want more and more wealth and more and more power. A moratorium will give us the time to figure out how to ensure that AI is safe and effective and prevent the worst outcomes. A moratorium will give us the time to figure out how to make sure AI does not harm our environment or jack up the electric bills that we pay. Bottom line: A moratorium will give the American people the time to determine how we can make AI and robotics work for them, not just a few wealthy people.

We need to pass this moratorium here. We need to slow down the development of AI around the world, and we need to bring the international community together to address the risk posed by AI.

And I can tell you that, in China, in Europe, in countries all over the world, there is deep concern about the safety of AI and the possible loss of human control over AI.

So we are looking at the most sweeping and impactful technological revolution in the history of humanity. It will impact all of us in so many ways. Yet Congress remains too busy raising contributions from the industry rather than standing up for the needs of the working people. That has got to change.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to make sure that we finally pass a moratorium, slow this down, and make AI robotics work for all of us, not just the few.

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