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Omaha Steve

(110,267 posts)
Sat Jun 6, 2026, 10:11 AM 9 hrs ago

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 couldn’t 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 Altman’s 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 it’s also creating odd political bedfellows fueled by populism as politicians from Sanders to President Donald Trump embrace giving the public a stake in AI’s growth.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/sam-altman-ai-bernie-sanders-trump-public-ownership-772224f9cd138eb79d3ef3336858a5d5

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WA-03 Democrat

(3,375 posts)
1. I would like to correct Sen. Sanders
Sat Jun 6, 2026, 11:45 AM
8 hrs ago

The public would like more then 51% - controlling interest please.

TexasBushwhacker

(21,321 posts)
3. If we're lucky
Sat Jun 6, 2026, 01:43 PM
6 hrs ago

What we get from the ownership will just about pay our electric bill once all the data centers are built.

highplainsdem

(63,390 posts)
6. See this GD thread for those and others talking about it, how it's built on the fantasy that AI is
Sat Jun 6, 2026, 03:49 PM
4 hrs ago

profitable, and how this talk is largely a way of avoiding regulation as people sour on AI:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221287067

highplainsdem

(63,390 posts)
7. Btw, Altman has offered shifting ideas over the years about sharing any profits from AI, and they've
Sat Jun 6, 2026, 04:15 PM
3 hrs ago

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.

Uncle Joe

(65,781 posts)
8. The public would need a controlling interest, or whatever comes from AI will be watered down over time
Sat Jun 6, 2026, 05:04 PM
2 hrs ago

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)
9. This is NOT a substitute for regulation and should not be treated as such. Fuck Altman. And it would need to be a
Sat Jun 6, 2026, 07:12 PM
42 min ago

controlling interest to be even remotely worth it.

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