Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Sam Altman are all talking about public ownership in AI
Source: AP
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and SEUNG MIN KIM
Updated 11:02 PM CDT, June 5, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) It was perhaps a surprising private overture from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The meeting between the two had come just after the Vermont senator announced a plan for the public to take a 50% ownership stake in artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI, using their stock to create a public wealth fund that would spread the fortune generated by AI behemoths.
Altman told Sanders that he, too, wants the public to have equity in AI companies. Though the CEO said he couldnt support Sanders threshold of 50%, he nonetheless wanted to work with him to advocate for the general idea, according to people with knowledge of the conversation.
The nearly hourlong meeting in Sanders Senate office this week, held at Altmans request, highlighted the inherent tension between AI powerhouses and policymakers as Americans are increasingly asked to accept the costs of the AI boom even as they remain unconvinced of its direct benefits. Yet its also creating odd political bedfellows fueled by populism as politicians from Sanders to President Donald Trump embrace giving the public a stake in AIs growth.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/sam-altman-ai-bernie-sanders-trump-public-ownership-772224f9cd138eb79d3ef3336858a5d5
WA-03 Democrat
(3,375 posts)The public would like more then 51% - controlling interest please.
reACTIONary
(7,335 posts)..... Communism with Chinese Characteristics comes to Amerika.
TexasBushwhacker
(21,321 posts)What we get from the ownership will just about pay our electric bill once all the data centers are built.
SamuelAdams
(253 posts)SamuelTheThird
(1,350 posts)Sanders is on the wrong track here
highplainsdem
(63,390 posts)profitable, and how this talk is largely a way of avoiding regulation as people sour on AI:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221287067
Karasu
(2,194 posts)highplainsdem
(63,390 posts)all apparently been designed to distract from the harm AI does.
Ten years ago, in a New Yorker profile, he talked about UBI becoming necessary as AI replaces jobs, but suggested it might have to be as low as only a few thousand dollars a year, because with AI we'd probably have fusion, making power practically free, and that in turn would somehow make food almost free (he's more than a little hazy on agriculture), and people would just get education from their smartphones. He admitted he hadn't calculated housing cost, and maybe doing part of the profile interviews at a Silicon Valley mansion made that harder to calculate.
Then he came up with the idea of everyone getting UBI via crypto payments after first getting their eyeballs scanned by a company he owned, with that scan also becoming their worldwide digital ID.
Then he talked about everyone being given 1 eight-billionth share of the world's compute, which they could sell or use themselves.
Karasu
(2,194 posts)Uncle Joe
(65,781 posts)as controlling oligarch/corporate conglomerate ownership increasingly asserts their influence over how it's managed for the benefit of AI at the expense of the public interest.
Just as they watered down social security ever since 1975 when they the capped the FICA tax limit adjusted automatically every year based on the national average wage index instead of a median wage index.
That's a slow kill strategy, of course the best public interest would be eliminating the FICA cap entirely.
Thanks for the thread Omaha Steve
Karasu
(2,194 posts)controlling interest to be even remotely worth it.