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On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called for a halt to new AI data center construction, warning that the rapid, billionaire-driven expansion of artificial intelligence is threatening jobs, democracy and public resources.<\/p>\n
Sanders Says AI Boom Is Being Driven By Billionaires, Not Public Interest<\/p>\n
In a video posted on X, Sanders said AI and robotics are moving faster than society can keep up.<\/p>\n
“AI and Robotics are the most transformative technologies in the history of humanity,” Sanders said, warning they will affect “every man, woman and child” in the country.<\/p>\n
He argued that figures such as Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:<\/a>TSLA<\/a>), SpaceX and xAI CEO Elon Musk, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:<\/a>AMZN<\/a>) founder Jeff Bezos, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:<\/a>META<\/a>) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:<\/a>MSFT<\/a>) co-founder Bill Gates are pushing the technology for “more wealth and even more power,” not to protect working families.<\/p>\n Don’t Miss:<\/p>\n Sanders questioned whether those leaders are concerned about the impact on workers, saying he does not believe “these very, very rich men” are losing sleep over job losses<\/a> or inequality.<\/p>\n Job Losses And Social Impact Fuel Sanders’ AI Concerns<\/p>\n The senator pointed to comments from tech executives themselves, noting that Musk has said AI and robots could replace all jobs, making work optional.<\/p>\n He also cited Gates’ warning that humans won’t be needed for most things and comments from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei suggesting AI could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar roles.<\/p>\n “If AI and robotics eliminate millions of jobs and create massive unemployment, how will people survive if they have no income?” Sanders asked, arguing Congress is not seriously addressing that question.<\/p>\n He also raised concerns about children becoming socially isolated and emotionally dependent on AI instead of real human relationships, calling that future deeply troubling.<\/p>\n Trending: If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it<\/a>?<\/p>\n Energy-Hungry Data Centers At Center Of Moratorium Push<\/p>\n Sanders’ call for a moratorium focuses on the data centers that power AI systems.<\/p>\n Last week, he said that Meta is planning a Louisiana facility<\/a> that could use three times more electricity than New Orleans, with taxpayers ultimately footing the bill.<\/p>\n He also referenced a Texas project tied to OpenAI and Oracle Corp. (NYSE:<\/a>ORCL<\/a>) that could consume enough power for roughly 750,000 homes, while another Meta site could match the needs of 1.2 million households.<\/p>\n Experts say data centers already account for about 5% of U.S. electricity use, a figure projected to rise sharply as AI adoption accelerates.<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/p>\n Photo Courtesy: Lev Radin on Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n This article Bernie Sanders Calls For Halt On AI Data Center Construction, Alleges ‘Very Very Rich Men’ Like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg Want More Power And Wealth<\/a> originally appeared on Benzinga.com<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a9 2025 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,15881,17685,11,1168,12424,177753,74,31732],"class_list":{"0":"post-359806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-bill-gates","12":"tag-data-center","13":"tag-elon-musk","14":"tag-jeff-bezos","15":"tag-mark-zuckerberg","16":"tag-sen-bernie-sanders","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-transformative-technologies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}