**Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders urged the world to slow down AI development before it’s too late. **Donald Trump isn’t listening.
MAGA Godfather Steve Bannon and progressive firebrand Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) agree on almost nothing — except that artificial intelligence could end the world as we know it. The two men hit the stage back-to-back in a rare joint appearance today at an event in Washington, D.C. dedicated to calling for a speed limit to the breakneck pace of technological progress.
The unlikely alliance between Bannon and Sanders (though neither used that term) underscores rising global fears that AI could soon become smarter than humans, and seize control of humanity. One slide at today’s event read: “Best case scenario: a machine-run world where humans are treated well, like pets…. Worst case scenario: extinction.”
The Bernie-Bannon joint warning follows alarm from researchers about a
potential apocalypsein the next decade, and Anthropic’sreport on howAI is being used in warfareright now.
The AI models now running amok are the “dumbest” ones that we’ll ever see, Sanders
𝕏warnedthe crowd. They’re getting smarter by the day — and more dangerous. “When you are racing towards a cliff, you don’t just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes,” Sanders said. “The future of humanity is at stake.”
How do we stop the robots? Bannon and Sanders have different ideas.
The senator wants a binding international treaty that outlines safety rules, as well as a legislative ban on the development of superintelligence (the point at which AI becomes smarter than humans). Bannon said legislation will be too slow. He wants executive orders that create time for the U.S. to think. That means trying to slow down Chinese AI development by cutting off the country’s access to American chips — and, Bannon added, in one of his classic ultra-nativist turns, expelling “all Chinese nationals” from American AI labs.
Trump doesn’t want to do any of that, of course, which may be why Bannon high-tailed it from the event after he spoke, before any journalists could ask him about Trump’s claim that
concerns about AI are just a “hoax.”
Before he left, Bannon praised Bernie. “I think Senator Sanders did a very good job of summarizing the risk. Obviously he and I have a quite different opinion of the president of the United States,” Bannon said. “But we’re trying to rise above partisanship,” he added, to applause. “This is a hinge in history. We have to handle this correctly.”
**Trump’s boundless enthusiasm for AI **could cost Republicans at the ballot box.
A new poll says voterstrust Republicans more than Democrats on AI — a rare advantage for the GOP, which has slipped behind on pretty much everything else, according to the same poll. But about one-in-five voters don’t yet know who to trust more.
Will Trump’s pedal-to-the-medal AI policy help undecided voters make up their minds — in favor of Democrats? “I am the Hoax Buster,” Trump boasted
on social media, dismissing concerns that robots pose a threat to humanity. Trump claimed that the best guardrail for AI is a “high IQ” president, and accused Anthropic’s CEO of trying to act like a “perfect little angel” by calling for regulations.
Congress won’t take the lead on regulating AI, House Speaker Mike Johnson
recently said. Senate Majority John Thuneexpressed interestin working on legislation to rein in artificial intelligence, but cautioned that it won’t happen anytime soon. Their efforts might not matter anyways, because the White House simply isn’t listening.
**“We’re not going to try to regulate AI,” **Attorney General Todd Blanche 𝕏said today.
**Read: **Message Box: AI Is an Existential Political Threat to the GOP by Crooked’s Dan Pfeiffer
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