Sanders-hosted forum warns AI could gut jobs, erode privacy and expand wartime targeting; speakers call for regulation

Senator Bernie Sanders convened a public forum with author Naomi Klein and Congressman Ro Khanna to warn that rapid advances in artificial intelligence threaten jobs, privacy and public safety unless Congress enacts stronger rules and protections.

The gathering opened with Sanders saying the AI and robotics shift could be faster and more consequential than the Industrial Revolution and arguing the technology’s current trajectory is being driven by “the wealthiest people in the world.” He called for immediate policy steps to protect workers and communities.

Naomi Klein, introduced as an author and long-time critic of corporate consolidation, said tech firms are racing toward Artificial General Intelligence and that their stated aims include replacing economically important human tasks. “They’re in a race to reach something that they call AGI … the goal of this revolution is to eliminate jobs,” Klein said, adding that companies have trained models on large collections of books, journalism and cultural material without transparent consent.

Congressman Ro Khanna linked the companies’ power to public subsidies and private investment, saying the internet and much foundational AI research were built on public funding and then commercialized. Khanna urged near-term protections for workers in sectors likely to be automated and proposed a federal jobs program modeled on New Deal-era public work to absorb workforce displacement.

The forum also turned to national-security risks. A participant addressed as Leisha raised reporting that AI-assisted target selection was used in recent strikes; speakers said news coverage suggests machine-aided targeting contributed to cases with serious civilian harm. “If AI is doing all the data analysis and saying, ‘here’s the target,’ then you just have a human being pushing a button,” a speaker said, arguing human oversight alone is not a sufficient safeguard.

Speakers raised privacy and community impacts tied to data collection and the physical infrastructure of AI. The panel discussed examples of data centers that have provoked local resistance—citing energy and water use, noise, and opaque non-disclosure agreements—and called for disclosure requirements so communities can assess local costs. Klein cited a high-profile Memphis installation she said added diesel turbines and significant air-quality burdens for an already overburdened neighborhood.

Panelists also discussed mental-health and platform-harms, arguing algorithmic design that maximizes engagement has contributed to worsening attention spans and harms among young people. Klein and others said the design incentives that push sensational content and addictive interfaces deserve regulatory attention alongside safety rules for high-stakes systems.

Throughout the forum, speakers attributed Congress’s inaction to industry political power and campaign spending. Khanna and Klein said industry PACs and large donations insulate firms from legislative change and make strong regulation politically costly.

The event concluded with calls for a “human-first” AI policy that prioritizes safety, transparency and community consent, and with no formal votes or legislative actions taken at the forum. Sanders and the panel urged Congress to move from occasional hearings to binding rules, worker protections, and requirements that companies disclose local environmental and resource impacts when proposing large-scale data centers.

The forum was a public discussion; speakers repeated claims drawn from industry reporting and academic warnings, and they framed many assertions as subject to further investigation rather than settled fact.

No formal legislative proposals were voted on during the event; participants urged town halls, congressional hearings with technical experts, and immediate transparency requirements for local projects.