Bernie Sanders files AI public ownership bill; proposes 50% stock tax, $1K annual dividends

<cite index="43-1,43-2">Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation on Thursday that would give the American public a direct 50% ownership stake in the country's largest AI companies through a one-time stock tax. Under the bill, AI firms crossing the $200 million annual revenue threshold would be required to hand over half their shares to a federally managed sovereign wealth fund valued at approximately $7 trillion.</cite>

<cite index="43-2,47-2">Oversight of the fund would fall to an independent, seven-person commission whose members would be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. That body would wield the fund's voting shares to push back against corporate actions seen as harmful to ordinary Americans. Every American would receive direct payments exceeding $1,000 annually, drawn from a 5% dividend the fund would be required to distribute.</cite> <cite index="42-3">Companies would be required to separate their AI and non-AI business operations under the proposal.</cite>

<cite index="43-3,44-4">The bill argues that AI derives its value from humanity's collective knowledge and creative work, and that a small number of oligarchs have profited from this public resource. Sanders said the proposal is a major step forward from giving unilateral power to a handful of billionaires.</cite> <cite index="48-3">Although unlikely to become law in the Republican-controlled Congress, alignment between Trump and Sanders on the concept shows how fears of AI downsides are creating unlikely bedfellows and shifting what is politically possible on AI policy.</cite>