Michigan Democrat Abdul el Sayed, who is running for Senate, supports a proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that calls for public ownership of artificial intelligence companies.
On Tuesday, the progressive candidate said the government should regulate AI firms like public utility companies because the advanced technology could potentially be disastrous for humanity.
Recommended Stories
“I hear folks who say, ‘Well, that seems pretty intense, we wouldn’t do that in almost any other industry,’” el Sayed told Bridge Michigan. “But no other industry has the potential to fundamentally change the nature of the social contract, or cause human demise to the level that AI is offering.”
In a New York Times op-ed earlier this month, Sanders proposed that the government take a 50% ownership stake in OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies to be held in a sovereign wealth fund. The fund would be created through a Sanders-led bill, called the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. The senator has not yet introduced the legislation.
“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 our citizens and to push for policies that help them,” Sanders wrote.
Speaking with Bridge Michigan, el Sayed said Sanders’s idea is “a really good way forward,” but he argued it needs to be paired with a regulatory enforcement mechanism backed by the government. He pointed to federal banking oversight as a potential regulatory framework for AI firms.
“Imagine what happens if the public owns half the stock, but then we don’t actually enforce the safety requirements and something catastrophic happens,” el Sayed said. “That doesn’t help you.”
El Sayed, who has been endorsed by Sanders, is running against Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D) and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the Aug. 4 primary to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI).
BERNIE SANDERS PROPOSES HAVING GOVERNMENT TAKE HALF OF ANTHROPIC AND OPENAI
McMorrow has AI regulation as one of her key campaign issues, but she does not support public ownership of AI firms. Stevens has served on a bipartisan AI task force in the House and worked on several AI safety and research bills. Instead of public ownership, Stevens advocates for more robust public-private partnerships.
With less than two months before the Democratic primary, el Sayed is performing well against McMorrow and Stevens in recent polls. However, his opponents remain close behind in a race that could end in any candidate’s favor. In addition to Sanders’s support, el Sayed benefits from a recent United Auto Workers endorsement.
