A U.S. Senate bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders would give the federal government a 50% ownership stake in the largest artificial intelligence companies, creating a sovereign wealth fund estimated to be worth $7 trillion.

Proposal Details

The American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would impose a one-time 50% tax on AI company stock and deposit those shares into a fund that could pay every American more than $1,000 annually. The fund would be managed by a seven-member independent commission, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, with authority to use its voting shares to block corporate decisions it determines hurt the American people.

The bill would also require large companies that operate both AI and non-AI businesses to separate those operations, with the public receiving an ownership stake in the AI side. This would apply to AI companies with at least $200 million in annual revenue, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google.

Reactions and Concerns

Policy analysts have expressed concerns that the bill could lead to offshoring and put American AI companies at a competitive disadvantage. Bruce Schneier, a Harvard fellow and security technologist, called the approach ‘absolutely nutty,’ saying the bill would not achieve Sanders’ goal of democratic control over AI development.

Others have suggested alternative approaches, such as taxing AI companies directly to return profits to the public and creating a government-run public AI option that operates outside the for-profit market.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.