Senator Bernie Sanders brought together leading artificial intelligence researchers from China to Capitol Hill this week, casting the rapid development of AI systems as a crisis demanding urgent international cooperation and binding treaties.
At a Wednesday panel, Sanders painted a stark picture of unchecked technological advance, describing the industry's biggest players as building "a runaway train with no brakes" that even its creators do not fully understand. The Vermont independent called for the kind of coordinated global framework that once governed nuclear weapons, warning that without swift action, the world faces mounting dangers.
The senator's specific concerns ranged across multiple domains. He flagged the spread of misinformation powered by AI, erosion of data privacy protections, and psychological risks to teenagers drawn into dependency on chatbots. Beyond those harms, Sanders emphasized what he sees as an existential threat: widespread automation that could trigger mass unemployment as companies replace human workers with machines. The researchers on the panel added another dimension to the risk profile, discussing the possibility of superintelligent systems that operate beyond their creators' control.
Xue Lan of Tsinghua University and Zeng Yi of the Beijing Institute of AI Safety and Governance participated in the discussion, arguing that the stakes transcend national boundaries. Lan pushed back against the notion that only a handful of countries and corporations should command the most powerful technology on earth, contending that US-China collaboration could help distribute AI benefits more equitably rather than create a world where some nations are left behind.
The optics of the gathering sparked immediate pushback from conservative critics. Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, acknowledged Sanders' concerns about child safety and economic displacement as legitimate but cautioned against partnering with what he called a foreign adversary. "The richest, most powerful people in the world are now building" these systems, Sanders said during the panel, and they have no idea where it's headed.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent weighed in separately, framing AI governance as a competition the United States must win alone. The Trump administration official argued that American researchers represent the world's best talent and that ceding influence over global AI standards to other nations would constitute the real safety threat.
Sanders is not new to this fight. In March, he and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveiled legislation that would block construction of new AI datacenters, signaling his intent to impose brakes through congressional action rather than wait for industry self-regulation. His push reflects a broader unease on Capitol Hill about the pace and scale of AI deployment without adequate safeguards.
Author James Rodriguez: "Sanders gets that this isn't just an American problem, but expecting Beijing and Washington to find common ground on AI when they can barely talk to each other on anything else is wishful thinking wrapped in good intentions."
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