Bernie Sanders

“At a moment when we have seen human loss of control and the creation of potentially dangerous viruses, your companies are still racing ahead — investing tens of billions of dollars into a technology that nobody can fully understand,” Sanders wrote.

The senator also noted previous statements by each company’s CEO that there would be measures to stop or pause development if AI machines became too tricky to control.

The cautioning about AI’s capabilities and the need for safeguards comes as scientists at Stanford University published findings that taught AI to recognize DNA patterns and to grow viruses never before seen in nature, which Sanders cited in his letter. The viruses were then able to infect bacterial cells, demonstrating they were viable.

Additionally, Sanders noted incidents in which models created by the tech giants he addressed went rogue. Last month, OpenAI models hacked into the major AI company Hugging Face. Last week, one of Meta’s models accessed the internet on its own accord and hacked another company.

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Sanders has long been an opponent of AI companies. In June, he introduced legislation to create a seven-member bipartisan commission with major influence over technology companies.

Sanders has argued that the AI boom will lead to further wealth inequality, so he introduced a proposal to impose a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the biggest AI companies. The stock would then be put into a sovereign wealth fund that would pay direct dividends to the public and be overseen by the commission, which would also use voting shares in companies to block decisions deemed bad for the public.