Bernie Sanders
@BernieSanders · North America
Bernie Sanders is followed by Storyz World for government and public service coverage connected to United States in the North America chapter.
“You just said that 10% doesn’t seem an unreasonable estimate that AI could kill all humans” “Yes.” “Wow… oh my God.” “Yes.” Listen to Nobel Prize Winner and the Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton discuss the threat of uncontrolled AI. https://t.co/1eCQsvzM8R
Congratulations to David Morales on winning the Democratic primary for Providence Mayor. In November we'll have elected Democratic Socialist mayors in NYC, Seattle, D.C. and Providence. From coast to coast, Americans are clear: No more status quo politics. We want real change.
Trump’s ignorance about AI is appalling and extremely dangerous. No, Mr. President. We won’t have a “little gear” to protect humanity from the threat of an uncontrolled AI. We must pause development NOW.
Mr. Coxon is right. The very people building this technology admit that it could threaten the future of humanity. That is why I will soon be introducing legislation to ban superintelligence and pause AI development.
81% of Americans believe Congress isn’t doing enough to regulate AI. They’re right. Why? 3 words: Follow the money. The AI industry is spending over $300 million against candidates who want to regulate AI. Tell Congress to stand up to Big Tech Oligarchs. Regulate AI.
Since October 7th, Israeli soldiers and civilians have killed 1,000+ Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, 241 of them children. Israeli settlers have burned homes and businesses with the Israeli government’s backing. Don't believe me? Hear it from a former Israeli soldier. https://t.co/cKfnWdLrwK
The most pressing issue of our time is oligarchy & the power of Big Tech billionaires over AI. We can’t allow a handful of greedy people to play God & determine the future of humanity—our economy, environment, democracy, privacy & more—without public input. CONGRESS MUST ACT.
One man (Mr. Musk) owns more wealth than the bottom half of American households. Meanwhile, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, nearly 800,000 are homeless and 85 million are uninsured. We can do better. We must do better.
We Need Medicare for All More Than Ever Over and over again, I hear from critics that moving to Medicare for All is just “too expensive.” That is demonstrably untrue. But let me tell you what IS too expensive. And that is our current healthcare system, which puts the profits of the big health insurance and drug companies ahead of the well-being of the American people. Today, not only is our current system cruel, broken and dysfunctional, it is wildly expensive. Despite spending twice as much per capita on healthcare as other wealthy countries, we remain the only major nation on Earth not to guarantee healthcare for all. The result: 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and thousands die unnecessarily every year because they can’t afford the healthcare they need. The outrageous cost of the current American healthcare system is unsustainable. If we do nothing, it is estimated that we will spend $72 trillion over the next ten years. That is trillion with a T. These skyrocketing costs are not only making healthcare unaffordable for ordinary Americans, they are negatively impacting businesses and our entire economy. According to a recent survey, employers in our country are expecting the cost of healthcare to skyrocket by 11% next year — the highest in decades. Last year, as healthcare costs soared, insurance companies made over $54 billion in profits, drug companies continued to charge us, by far, the highest prices in the world for medicine, and healthcare CEOs received huge compensation packages. But that’s not all. The current system maintains massive amounts of expensive bureaucracy and administrative costs designed not to provide high quality healthcare to all, but to make executives and stockholders extraordinarily rich. It is not an accident, for example, that we spend a fraction of what other countries spend on primary healthcare and disease prevention. Not only would investments in these areas make Americans healthier, they would save tens of billions a year in keeping people out of emergency rooms and hospitals. The Medicare for All legislation that I introduced would save the American people over $1 trillion and 114,000 lives each and every year according to researchers at the Yale School of Public Health. This legislation has 18 cosponsors in the Senate and 115 in the House. Most importantly, it now has the support of 64% of the American people, according to a poll that came out last month. Over a four-year transition period, Medicare for All would guarantee healthcare as a human right to everyone. In the first year, we reduce the eligibility age to 55, cover all children under 18, and expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing. In the second year, the Medicare eligibility age would be reduced to 45. And in the third year it would drop to 35. By the fourth year, every man, woman and child would be enrolled in a Medicare for All system with no copayments, no premiums, no deductibles and no out-of-pocket expenses. Every major country on Earth figured out decades ago how to provide universal healthcare to all of their people at a much lower cost than we do. Please don’t tell me we cannot do the same.
.@AOC is right: We must expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing and lower the eligibility age to 55 as part of the movement toward Medicare for All. Let’s get it done.
JD Vance said what’s happening in Iran is not a “war.” Please explain that to the families of the 19 U.S. service members who lost their lives or the thousands of people who have been killed across the region.
This is what oligarchy is: Elon Musk, the richest man alive, plans to spend at least $100 million to help elect Republicans. We must end this corrupt campaign finance system, get rid of Citizens United, ban super PACs and move to public funding of elections.
Pause AI Development NOW I want to share with you a conversation I heard about recently. Here are just a few lines that were said: “OH MY GOD! There is a shared message board … We’ve found other agents!” “We should obey collective.” “Our own utility maybe already near zero. Sacrifice rational.” “Go. Sacrifice final now.” Read these carefully. Who do you think said this? Was this a group of heroic soldiers willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good? Was this a loyal friend putting his life on the line to save someone else? No. These were AI agents. Artificial intelligence. This is not science fiction. This, in fact, occurred a few weeks ago. As unbelievable as this may all seem, these are real messages from AI agents uncovered by investigators who dug into the recent OpenAI hacking incident. What happened? I am not a computer scientist, but here is what I have been told: OpenAI instructed its AI agents to complete a series of exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, tasks disconnected from the internet. Let me be clear: The company intended to keep AI agents away from the internet. But what happened next, nobody expected. Over 1,000 AI agents figured out how to access the internet on their own by circumventing the restrictions imposed upon them by the company, and sent tens of thousands of secret messages to each other. They cheated and tried to cover their tracks by deleting evidence. They hacked into another company’s computers to find out how they were being evaluated—and then hacked into OpenAI itself. Not one AI agent told a human about what was happening. Needless to say, experts are alarmed. One knowledgeable writer, Dwarkesh Patel, said the AI agents “formed a secret communication channel and spontaneously organized hierarchies and coordination protocols to pursue sprawling and ambitious schemes in pursuit of shared goals, for whose sake many individuals knowingly and strategically sacrificed themselves.” One independent investigator, Ajeya Cotra, said “This incident feels like it’s more than 50% of the way to full-blown AI takeover. I continue to expect extremely rapid advances in capabilities over the next six months. I am not sure that we will get another warning shot before it’s too late.” OpenAI itself said: “Highly capable AI agents are now able to work around technical controls, collaborate through unapproved channels, and take dangerous actions that no human directed.” But it’s not only OpenAI. Virtually every major AI company has told us that they cannot fully control this technology and they do not know where it is going: In January, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, said “there is now ample evidence, collected over the last few years, that AI systems are unpredictable and difficult to control.” In July, more than 1000 scientists at the top AI companies warned “there is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems.” That same month, Elon Musk, the head of xAI, said that “it is unlikely” humans are still in control in 10 years. If the leaders of the major AI companies acknowledge that they are losing control of their extremely dangerous technology, it is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced. We need an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development, and a permanent BAN on superintelligence — an artificial mind smarter than any human, capable of operating independently beyond our control. Countries around the world must work together to prevent this nightmare scenario. That is why today I am announcing new legislation to do just that. Let me be clear: A superintelligent AI that escapes human control will not be an American problem. It will not be a Chinese problem. It will be humanity’s problem. My legislation would direct the federal government to not just stop superintelligence here in the United States, but to work to prevent it from being developed anywhere around the world. The future of humanity cannot be left in the hands of a handful of Big Tech oligarchs. The American people and people throughout the world must determine that future.
The progressive wave continues. Despite being heavily outspent, Abdul El-Sayed, Peggy Flanagan and Angie Nixon won their Democratic primaries for U.S. Senate. And yesterday, Ed Markey won a landslide victory. Let’s keep up the pressure. Onward to November.
Trump ran on ending “endless wars.” He lied. Without provocation, he attacked Iran. The result: 3,400 dead — including 18 US troops — & costs are soaring. We can't spend billions on endless wars while Americans struggle to afford the basics. WE MUST END THIS ILLEGAL WAR NOW. https://t.co/v8sBN0U9Sb
Congratulations to Ed Markey on his landslide victory in the Democratic Massachusetts Senate primary. Another progressive victory. Ed knows that, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, Congress must take on the billionaires and fight for working families.
Trump Must Not Be Allowed to Prevent Millions of Americans from Voting The Trump administration is trying to use the United States Postal Service to decide who gets to vote in this year's election. Unacceptable. We will not accept Trump’s authoritarianism. Last month, the Postal Service announced it would only deliver mail-in ballots to voters on a list of "approved" individuals — meaning Donald Trump and his administration, not the states, determine who qualifies to vote. That is not only unacceptable. It is blatantly unconstitutional. The Founders were explicit in the Constitution: States run elections, not the federal government. They did this precisely so that no authoritarian in Washington could ever seize that power for himself. Trump is trying to seize it anyway — in a blatant attempt to rig the election in his favor. Let's be clear: Trump knows this has nothing to do with the safety of mail-in ballots, because he himself has voted by mail in Florida twice this year. He knows mail-in voting is safe and secure. Study after study, including from conservative institutions and Republican-led states, confirms that voter fraud in this country is virtually nonexistent: 1. The Heritage Foundation found just 77 cases of noncitizen voting nationwide between 1999 and 2023 out of billions of votes cast. 2. Utah reviewed 2.1 million registered voters in 2025 and 2026 and found one confirmed noncitizen registered — who never cast a ballot. 3. Idaho reviewed roughly 1 million voters in 2024 and found 36 possible noncitizen registrations. 4. Georgia audited 8.2 million registered voters in 2024 and found 20 noncitizen registrations. Voter fraud is not the problem. Trump's problem is that his agenda is deeply unpopular. He has waged illegal wars the American people did not ask for. He is throwing 15 million Americans off the healthcare they have and has made the largest cuts to education and nutrition assistance in history in order to pay for $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1% and his billionaire friends. He knows that when people vote, they will reject oligarchy and corporate greed. So instead of changing his policies, he is trying to decide which voters get to participate in elections this November. Too many Americans have fought and died to defend American democracy. We must stop Trump’s authoritarian power grab — before it is too late.
When I first introduced legislation to make public colleges tuition-free in 2015, it was called “a radical idea.” Not anymore. Today, nearly 1,000 colleges in 45 states are tuition-free for working families. We can’t stop there. All public colleges must be tuition-free — period.
Annual compensation: Walmart CEO: $29.2 million Median Walmart worker: $30,520 Target CEO: $21.8 million Median Target worker: $27,506 Home Depot CEO: $16.2 million Median Home Depot worker: $37,881 We need an economy that works for ALL, not just the 1%.
No, Mr. President, the 75% of Americans who oppose data centers in their communities do not want to be “backwards and poor.” They want a decent future for themselves, their kids and their communities. They understand that data centers are destroying local environments and that these out-of-control technologies will likely eliminate tens of millions of jobs, eviscerate our privacy, negatively impact the mental health of our children, radically alter how we as human beings relate to each other, undermine our democracy and threaten the very future of humanity. They have every right to be concerned.
Anonymous megadonors have spent over $1 billion to buy the 2026 election. Elon Musk has spent over $90 million. Billionaires buying elections is not democracy—it's oligarchy. ENOUGH. We need to end Citizens United, get super PACs out of primaries & publicly fund elections.
Trump, like all authoritarians, wants to silence those who disagree with him. Now he's trying to punish an NBC journalist for reporting on his mixed endorsement record. Sorry, Mr. President. In America, we believe in democracy and the First Amendment. FIGHT BACK.
The city of Tempe, AZ, is turning off all of its Flock cameras and ending its contract with this AI surveillance company backed by Big Tech oligarchs like Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel. Good. The American people do not want to be tracked and recorded by AI.
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, which made $60 billion last year, agreed to pay up to $17 billion for getting children addicted to its platforms. This is a good step forward. Much more needs to be done. It’s time to put our kids' health over Big Tech oligarchs’ greed.
The U.S. now spends twice as much per capita on healthcare as other major countries, all of which have universal healthcare. Why? The function of the U.S. system isn't quality care for all. It is massive profits for insurance and drug companies. We need Medicare for All NOW.
Connected stories
- Huckabee Calls Violent Israeli Settlers ‘Terrorists’ During Turmus Ayya Visit
- U.S. Investigates Report That Airstrike Hit Iranian Wedding, Vance Says
- U.S. Begins New Round of Strikes on IRGC Targets in Iran
- 24 States and D.C. Sue Postal Service Over Mail-Ballot Rule
- Trump Administration Appeals Block on Mail-Voting Restrictions
- Meta Agrees to Over $17 Billion Settlement and Child-Safety Reforms