Bernie Sanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is expected to introduce a bill Thursday that would provide US citizens a say in how artificial intelligence companies are run.

The bill, titled the “American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act,” would create a fund applying a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the country’s biggest AI companies.

Sanders, a ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, has been active in oversight on AI, joining Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on a bill in March to prevent the development of new AI infrastructure.

The legislation Thursday comes as Congress considers solutions to regulating the implementation of AI throughout the country.

Sanders discussed the legislation during a speech on the Senate floor earlier this month.

“If these AI companies continue to grow as dramatically as many analysts expect, then the value of the sovereign wealth fund created under this bill would grow as well, and the benefits to the American people would grow along with it,” Sanders said, according to the Congressional Record.

“No longer would the future of AI and the transformation of human life that it will bring be dictated by a handful of Big Tech oligarchs,” Sanders said. “The Federal Government would have the power, through its voting shares and an equal representation on each company’s board, to block decisions that hurt the public.”