Bernie Sanders has warned Congress and the American public that they “have no clue” about the scale and speed of the coming AI revolution, pressing for immediate policy action to “slow this thing down” as tech companies race to build more powerful systems.
Speaking at Stanford University on Friday with Congressman Ro Khanna after a series of meetings with industry leaders in California, Sanders was blunt about what he called “the most dangerous moment in the modern history of this country.”
“Congress and the American people are very unprepared for the coming tsunami,” he said.
Khanna, a progressive Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, shares Sanders’ concerns, warning that the country is experiencing a “new gilded age” driven by tech billionaires who believe “they would have been heroic conquerors in a different era.”
“That’s not my observation,” Khanna said. “That’s what they tell me.”
Khanna and Sanders declined to specify which tech executives the senator met with during his visit to California, but the congressman said they were “senior leaders” at “very prominent tech companies.”
“I think it’s important to hear from Senator Sanders, who is both a tech leader and a tech leader, who represents and understands a lot of working-class Americans,” Khanna said in an interview after the event.
During his remarks, Sanders called for a moratorium on the expansion of AI data centers while policymakers grapple to “slow the revolution and protect workers.”
Khanna doesn’t want a moratorium, instead pushing to “steer” AI, arguing that the US should follow the “Singapore model” for data center growth, focusing on renewable energy and water efficiency. In his remarks before an auditorium of mostly students, Khanna outlined seven principles to protect against “oligarchic capture and dominance” of the wealth created by AI innovation.
“We have to ask what America can do for Silicon Valley, but what Silicon Valley can do for America,” said the congressman, who is considering a 2028 presidential bid.
The event capped a days-long trip to California, a state he won in the 2020 presidential primary and returned to rally thousands on his Fight Oligarchy tour last year. In Los Angeles on Wednesday, Sanders issued a scathing denunciation of the “greed” of the billionaire class. There he helped formally launch a campaign for a ballot initiative that would have taxed residents worth more than $1bn at a time of 5% – a proposal that has already prompted some ultra-wealthy tech leaders to flee or threaten to do so.
At Stanford, Sanders focused his remarks on his concerns about how AI could affect not only the workforce but also personal well-being and people’s ability to interact with each other. He noted that a restaurant in DC served a Valentine’s Day special for people and their “AI buddies,” which drew laughs from the students.
It may sound ridiculous, Sanders said, “but a lot of people are relying on AI for their emotional support. What is the long-term impact of that? What is the long-term impact if we lose work as an important part of our lives? What do we do with our lives?”
Sanders read statements from industry leaders predicting widespread automation and citing predictions that AI and robotics could eliminate tens of millions of jobs over the next decade — from truck drivers to fast-food workers and many white-collar roles.
Polling finds that Americans are deeply concerned as federal regulators and states debate how to impose safeguards on the emerging technology. A 2025 Pew survey found that 64% of people believe AI will “lead to fewer jobs in the next 20 years.” Just 17% of Americans said “AI will have a very or somewhat positive impact on the United States” during the same period.
Tech CEOs leading the AI race argue that AI will drive productivity, innovation, and new forms of employment as technology advances forever. But critics like Sanders say the “unprecedented” speed and scale of the changes threatens to enrich “multi-billionaires” while exacerbating inequality and leaving policymakers and the public ill-equipped to mount a timely response.
Sanders urged his colleagues and the public in Washington to start a serious public debate about the future of work as AI disrupts the economy, democracy and people’s emotional lives.
“AI and robotics are neither good nor bad,” he said. “Question The question is: will a few billionaires benefit from it or will it benefit the common people?”
