Senator Bernie Sanders has launched a proposal that shakes the tech sector: that the public should own 50% of major AI companies like OpenAI or Anthropic. The idea, materialized through a stock tax to create a sovereign wealth fund, promises to distribute over $1,000 annually to every American adult. Amid fears of mass layoffs due to automation, the measure aims to redistribute the profits of artificial intelligence.
The technical model of the AI sovereign wealth fund 🤖
The proposal outlines a direct mechanism: taxing large AI firms with a percentage of shares, transferring those securities to a publicly managed sovereign wealth fund. Dividends and capital gains would be distributed among the citizenry. Although Congress is unlikely to pass the law now, the technical debate on how to value these companies and calculate the distribution is already underway. The model resembles funds like Alaska's, but on a national and technological scale.
When AI takes your job, but pays your rent 🏠
So, according to Sanders, robots will leave us jobless, but at least we can buy a pizza with the annual dividend. The logic is impeccable: if AI learns to do your job, it might as well buy you a coffee while you look for another. The funny thing is, by the time the law passes, AI might have already written the bill itself, and assigned itself 100% of the shares. Ironies of progress.