Nobel Prize-winning scientist Geoffrey Hinton, known as the Godfather of AI, believes that there is a 10 to 20% chance that artificial intelligence will wipe out humanity. Bernie Sanders wants to know why that number hasn’t led to a single serious debate in Congress.
In a lengthy statement posted to X, Sanders did not rely on speculation or political talk. He quoted Yoshua Bengio, described as the most cited living scientist in the world, who warned that researchers are “playing with fire” and still cannot guarantee that AI systems will not ultimately turn against human interests.
At odds with Hinton, Sanders pointed to a 2023 open letter signed by more than 1,000 AI experts, including Elon Musk, asking whether humanity should allow machines to “outnumber, outsmart, and replace us.”
Three years later, there has been no progress politically, Sanders said. There is no hindrance in development. No international agreement. No congressional meetings about existential threats.
He takes care not to present the problem merely as science fiction. Before making this statement, he had spent months examining the real and existing problems presented by the technology, such as AI causing 54,000 jobs in the US by the year 2024, harm to children’s social and mental development, and increasing lack of online privacy.
In an effort to take things further, Sanders said he would invite some of the best AI researchers from both countries to testify before Congress, which is a very bipartisan, as well as international action, at a time when the geopolitical situation between the two countries has reached a breaking point.
The legislation he drafted joins a Senate bill he introduced with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that would have imposed an immediate ban on all AI datacenters being built while awaiting safeguards. This law has rapidly come from marginal areas to mainstream discussion.
