{"id":619447,"date":"2026-05-02T15:25:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619447\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T15:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:25:37","slug":"inside-the-ai-doom-machine-and-who-is-benefiting-from-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619447\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the AI doom machine \u2014 and who is benefiting from it"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Elon Musk\u2013Sam Altman trial<\/a> in Oakland, Calif., is dominating headlines this week, 3,000 miles away, a Capitol Hill event with far less fanfare may prove even more significant for the future of AI in America.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, Sen. Bernie Sanders hosted a panel featuring top Chinese AI officials tied to Beijing\u2019s Ministry of Science and Technology \u2014 including Xue Lan of Tsinghua University and Zeng Yi of the Beijing Institute of AI Safety and Governance \u2014 to discuss the \u201cexistential threat\u201d of artificial intelligence and the need for international cooperation.<\/p>\n

The gathering is a striking illustration of how AI doomerism \u2014 the belief that advanced AI poses an existential threat to humanity \u2014 has quietly forged one of the stranger coalitions in modern politics. Socialists, Hollywood unions, Jan. 6 organizers and Chinese government officials are now aligned in trying to slow down American AI development under the guise of saving humanity.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders hosted a panel featuring top Chinese AI officials tied to Beijing\u2019s Ministry of Science and Technology to discuss the \u201cexistential threat\u201d of artificial intelligence and the need for international cooperation. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have this huge ecosystem pushing AI doomerism with zero regard for the consequences \u2014 the main one being that America will fall behind in the global AI race,\u201d Nathan Leamer, executive director of Build American AI, told me. \u201cAnd they genuinely don\u2019t seem bothered by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And according to a report released this week<\/a> from the Bull Moose Project, doomers have been spending a fortune.<\/p>\n

A tight network of donors, with former Facebook executive Dustin Moskovitz\u2019s Coefficient Giving at the center, has already spent $5.9 billion and has $37.8 billion more publicly pledged, according to the report.<\/p>\n

To be sure, there are legitimate concerns about AI including deepfakes, job displacement, and genuine safety risks. And they all need to be regulated. But critics argue the rhetoric has gone off the rails. Getty Images<\/p>\n

They have given out more than $611 million in donations to candidates (99.8% of whom are Democrats), dark money groups and so-called AI safety organizations such as Future of Life Institute, the report adds.<\/p>\n

While those sums flow overwhelmingly to the left, conservatives are also embracing the anti-AI push and partnering with leftwing groups.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This story is part of NYNext<\/a>, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that matter most to NYC\u2019s power players (and those who aspire to be).<\/p>\n

Last month, Amy Kremer \u2014 best known for organizing the January 6 \u201cStop the Steal\u201d rally \u2014 hosted a bipartisan town hall <\/a>in New York alongside progressives and AI engineers to discuss limiting AI\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

This event came days after the AI doomer policy group the Future of Life released an AI declaration to hold AI companies accountable<\/a>. It included signatories from SAG-AFTRA to progressives Ralph Nader and Susan Rice to conservatives like Kremer.<\/p>\n

Dario Amodei is regularly accused of being alarmist about the impact of AI and this February his company dropped $20 million into a pro-regulation Super PAC.\u00a0 REUTERS<\/p>\n

To be sure, there are legitimate concerns about AI including deepfakes, job displacement, and genuine safety risks. And they all need to be regulated. But critics argue the rhetoric has gone off the rails.<\/p>\n

One group, Alliance for a Better Future, ran an ad earlier this month labeling AI innovators<\/a> as \u201cDigital Epsteins,\u201d\u00a0while conservative activist Joe Allen frames it as \u201cspiritual warfare<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not organic. We are seeing this network of operatives and funders from the far left and far right, and increased hyperbole to a degree that is beyond normal,\u201d Leamer told NYNext. \u201cIt is truly an effort to hamstring American innovation and growth and hinder our companies from competing globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Elon Musk\u2013Sam Altman trial in Oakland, Calif., is dominating headlines this week. Getty Images for The New York Times<\/p>\n

While he didn\u2019t sign the latest manifesto, Dario Amodei is arguably one of the bigger winners of the doom ideology. The Anthropic CEO is regularly accused of being alarmist<\/a> about the impact of AI and this February his company dropped $20 million into a pro-regulation Super PAC<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Techno-optimists like Leamer and longtime Democratic stragetist Josh Vlasto believe that alarmism is preventing America from passing a clear framework supporting innovation. They argue doomers are pushing for strict state-level bills which would create a regulatory patchwork so onerous only the largest companies could comply. The move could hamper innovation in the US and cede power to China.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of what the public hears is catastrophic language, problems, and no solutions which threatens to undermine American AI leadership and disrupt any thoughtful policy process,\u201d Vlasto told NYNext. \u201cChina just rolled out their five-year plan for AI \u2026 This group doesn\u2019t want America to have a five-year plan\u2026 they just want to control for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leamer notes that while America\u2019s doomers raise billions to slow domestic innovation, Beijing is racing ahead with no such handicap.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequence is being unable to compete,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they don\u2019t seem concerned about that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Elon Musk\u2013Sam Altman trial in Oakland, Calif., is dominating headlines this week, 3,000 miles away, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,8634,28,76529,11,1347,7047,74],"class_list":["post-619447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-business","tag-dario-amodei","tag-elon-musk","tag-nynext","tag-sam-altman","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619447","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=619447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}