--- title: "Bernie Sanders Issues Warning About How AI Is Really Being Used" description: "Bernie Sanders has become one of the most surprising AI boosters in politics — and he's getting his intel straight from the source." date: "2025-07-15" modified: "2025-07-15" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/bernie-sanders-ai-warning" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai workers" - "bernie sanders" - "labor" - "politics" --- # Bernie Sanders Issues Warning About How AI Is Really Being Used ![Bernie Sanders has become one of the most surprising AI boosters in politics — and he's getting his intel straight from the source.]() *\Image: Nathan Morris / NurPhoto via Getty / Futurism\* Senator Bernie Sanders is, like most of us, worried about how [AI is going to affect our future]() — but he's not convinced that the mainstream conversation is capturing the dynamics of how the tech is really affecting the labor market. In an [interview with *Gizmodo*](), the Vermont legislator revealed that in the wake of his call for AI to aid in the establishment of a [four-day work week](), he has taken to speaking with AI experts and CEOs about the technology. Though Sanders refused to name names, the tech luminaries he's been speaking with are apparently of two minds. In one school, experts warn that there "will be massive job losses," while others insist that new jobs will be created even as others go by the wayside. "I happen to believe this is not like the Industrial Revolution," Sanders told *Giz*. "I think this could be a lot more severe." As the two-time presidential contender noted, AI seems already to be accelerating the longstanding disparity between increasing worker productivity and those same workers failing to see the fruits of their labor. As the independent senator puts it, all that money instead goes "to the corporations and to the companies that developed that technology" — and the current existential struggle should be about AI helping rather than hindering labor rights and security. "Workers today... are earning less, and I fear very much that almost all the new benefits of worker productivity will go to the people on top at the expense of working people," Sanders told the site. "That is something that concerns me very much." "Unless we change the political dynamics, the benefits are going to accrue to the people on top at the expense of working people," he continued. "That to me is the most important issue. I want workers to benefit from this new technology, not just the people on top." Still, he believes that "AI is neither good nor bad" — but that it's also "not science fiction" either. "There are very, very knowledgeable people... who worry very much that human beings will not be able to control the technology," the former Burlington mayor said, "and that artificial intelligence will in fact dominate our society." Like so many [AI doomers]() [before him](), Sanders believes that there may soon come a time when "we will not be able to control" the nascent technology, and that instead, "it may be able to control us." "That’s kind of the doomsday scenario," he concluded, "and there is some concern about that among very knowledgeable people in the industry." All told, Sanders' AI take isn't all that surprising given the [workers' rights rhetoric]() he's [espoused for his entire career](). What sets him apart in the [increasingly politicized AI wars]() isn't that he's cautiously optimistic about it, but that he intends to hold tech CEOs' feet to the fire to make sure the technology doesn't result in the kind of [massive unemployment]() that [so many]() have [warned about](). That show of integrity, at the end of the day, inspires much more confidence than the [collective shoulder-shrug]() we're seeing from most politicians on the topic. **More on AI and politics:** [*Elon Musk's Bizarre Behavior May Force Tesla Board to Step in, Analyst Warns*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()