Bernie Sanders unveils $7 trillion plan to give Americans control of AI industry

伯尼·桑德斯公布 7 万亿美元计划，旨在让美国民众掌控人工智能行业

Bernie Sanders has unveiled an aggressive plan to transfer trillions from leading AI firms to the public, and, to the likely horror of AI firms, it goes even further than expected to give Americans more control over the AI industry. 伯尼·桑德斯（Bernie Sanders）公布了一项激进的计划，旨在将数万亿美元从领先的人工智能公司转移给公众。令这些人工智能公司感到惊恐的是，该计划在赋予美国民众对人工智能行业控制权方面，其力度远超预期。

Sanders shared a summary of his legislation with AP News. If passed, the law would create a sovereign wealth fund “financed through a one-time 50 percent tax on the stock of the largest AI companies,” AP News reported. Any AI firm that does $200 million in annual AI sales would be subject to the tax, as would any new firm once it reaches that revenue level. 桑德斯向美联社（AP News）分享了他的立法摘要。据美联社报道，如果该法案获得通过，将设立一个主权财富基金，“通过对大型人工智能公司的股票征收一次性 50% 的税款来提供资金”。任何年人工智能销售额达到 2 亿美元的人工智能公司都将面临此项税收，任何新公司一旦达到该收入水平也同样适用。

In total, Sanders estimated the fund could be worth $7 trillion, generating “hundreds of billions of dollars annually in direct payments to Americans and programs such as health care, education and housing,” AP News reported. Each American would likely receive more than $1,000 annually in 5 percent annual dividends, Sanders estimated. 据美联社报道，桑德斯估计该基金总额可能达到 7 万亿美元，每年可产生“数千亿美元，用于直接支付给美国民众，以及资助医疗保健、教育和住房等项目”。桑德斯估计，每位美国人每年可能通过 5% 的年度股息获得超过 1,000 美元的收益。

“The benefits cannot simply go to the handful of wealthy corporations,” Sanders said. “They will be shared by the American people.” Beyond the payouts and support for critical US programs, the legislation would also ensure that Americans have “direct influence over corporate decision-making,” Sanders said. “这些利益不能仅仅流向少数几家富有的公司，”桑德斯说，“它们应该由美国人民共享。”桑德斯表示，除了资金发放和对美国关键项目的支持外，该立法还将确保美国民众对“企业决策拥有直接影响力”。

Seven members of a newly created, bipartisan Independent Commission for Democratic AI—nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate—would oversee the fund. Using voting shares, the commission could block any decisions companies may move to make that could harm the public, The Hill reported. 据《国会山报》（The Hill）报道，一个新成立的、由两党组成的“民主人工智能独立委员会”将监管该基金，其七名成员由总统提名并经参议院确认。该委员会可以利用投票权，阻止公司做出可能损害公众利益的决策。

“The public has got to have a significant seat at the table to make sure that terrible things do not happen to ordinary people, and that in fact, AI benefits ordinary people, not hurts them,” Sanders told AP News. “公众必须在决策桌上占有重要席位，以确保普通民众不会遭遇可怕的事情，并确保人工智能实际上是造福而非伤害普通民众，”桑德斯告诉美联社。

AI industry unlikely to embrace Sanders’ plan

人工智能行业不太可能接受桑德斯的计划

Although some CEOs like OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei have shown support for some public benefits from AI, their ideas are not as bold as Sanders’. In a meeting with Sanders, Altman remained “far apart” from the senator on how much stake in OpenAI the American public should have, sources in the room told AP News. 尽管 OpenAI 的萨姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）和 Anthropic 的达里奥·阿莫代（Dario Amodei）等一些首席执行官已表示支持人工智能带来的一些公共利益，但他们的想法并不像桑德斯那样大胆。据美联社援引知情人士消息，在与桑德斯的会面中，奥特曼在“美国公众应持有多少 OpenAI 股份”这一问题上，与这位参议员的立场仍存在“巨大分歧”。

However, Sanders insists that his legislation transfers a fair amount of wealth while critically ensuring that AI benefits humanity. He confirmed that he intends to campaign on creating the fund, and during the meeting, he cast AI firms that expect to transfer significantly less than 50 percent as greedy. 然而，桑德斯坚持认为，他的立法在转移相当一部分财富的同时，关键在于确保人工智能造福人类。他确认打算通过竞选活动来推动设立该基金，并在会议期间将那些期望转移比例远低于 50% 的人工智能公司斥为贪婪。

“I think people like Sam Altman and Trump (who) may be sympathetic” to the public’s growing concerns about AI displacing jobs or harming communities and “are saying: ‘OK, look, we’re making zillions of dollars, so we’re going to be nice guys and maybe we’ll buy off the public. We will give 5 percent of our profits back into the government,’” Sanders said in the meeting. “That’s not what we’re talking about. What we’re talking about are two very different things.” “我认为像萨姆·奥特曼和特朗普这样的人，可能对公众日益担忧人工智能取代工作岗位或伤害社区的问题表示同情，他们说：‘好吧，看，我们赚了无数的钱，所以我们要做好人，也许我们会收买公众。我们会将利润的 5% 返还给政府，’”桑德斯在会上说，“这根本不是我们所谈论的。我们谈论的是两件截然不同的事情。”

Not only are AI firms likely to balk at the size of the stake Sanders has suggested, but some will also recoil at a requirement under the law to split their non-AI business from their AI business, The Hill reported. That could affect businesses like Elon Musk’s firm, xAI. That leading AI firm has already merged with X and then SpaceX, and the world’s richest man may be plotting a mega-merger between SpaceX and Tesla, The New York Times reported. 据《国会山报》报道，人工智能公司不仅可能对桑德斯建议的持股比例望而却步，一些公司还会对法律要求其将非人工智能业务与人工智能业务拆分的要求感到抵触。这可能会影响埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）旗下的 xAI 等公司。据《纽约时报》报道，这家领先的人工智能公司已经与 X 合并，随后又与 SpaceX 合并，而这位世界首富可能正在策划 SpaceX 与特斯拉之间的超级合并。

While Donald Trump has toyed with the idea of the US government taking a stake in leading AI firms, he seems unlikely to get behind Sanders’ plan. His former AI czar, David Sacks, remains influential in his administration and slammed Sanders’ legislation before details were even released. Last week, Sacks said on the All In technology podcast that Sanders’ legislation would be a “straight up confiscation of property” and set “a terrible precedent,” the Post reported. 虽然唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump）曾考虑过美国政府入股领先人工智能公司的想法，但他似乎不太可能支持桑德斯的计划。他曾经的人工智能主管大卫·萨克斯（David Sacks）在其政府中仍具影响力，并在该法案细节公布之前就对其进行了抨击。据《华盛顿邮报》报道，上周，萨克斯在《All In》科技播客上表示，桑德斯的立法将是“赤裸裸的财产没收”，并开创了“一个可怕的先例”。

Although Sacks said he had “sympathy” for where Sanders is “coming from,” he is more supportive of “voluntary ideas for some public ownership of AI companies,” like Trump’s. Given the Republican-controlled Congress (which remains largely pro-AI industry), it seems unlikely that Sanders’ legislation will pass without Trump’s buy-in. 尽管萨克斯表示他“同情”桑德斯的“出发点”，但他更支持像特朗普那样“关于人工智能公司部分公共所有权的自愿性想法”。鉴于共和党控制的国会（该国会目前在很大程度上支持人工智能行业），如果得不到特朗普的支持，桑德斯的立法似乎不太可能获得通过。

Sanders likely doesn’t expect his legislation to resolve the biggest questions the public has about AI or even put a dent in anti-AI sentiment. But he told AP News that he views his legislation as a starting point for discussing how Americans should benefit from AI amid rising anti-AI sentiment nationwide. 桑德斯可能并不指望他的立法能解决公众对人工智能最大的疑问，甚至无法缓解反人工智能的情绪。但他告诉美联社，他将自己的立法视为一个起点，旨在讨论在全国范围内反人工智能情绪日益高涨的情况下，美国人应如何从人工智能中受益。

“We think this is the best that we could do at the moment, and it’s certainly a major, major, major step forward from giving unilateral and total power to a handful of multi-billionaires,” Sanders said. “我们认为这是我们目前能做的最好的事情，而且这无疑是从将单方面和绝对的权力交给少数亿万富翁手中迈出的重大、重大、重大的一步，”桑德斯说。