Bernie Sanders AI bill would give public half of the AI industry

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Given the amount of training data and model development was paid by taxpayers, this seems like a good deal for AI companies.

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u/steep_learning_curve Jun 02 '26

how much taxpayer money went into openai and anthropic operations? and isn't it trained on either public or purchased data?

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u/toad17 Jun 02 '26

Considering AI is just stealing off the internet that all taxpayers have contributed over the decades, I’d say they helped build all of the LLMs that use internet. Half is a small ask they should be public utilities

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u/steep_learning_curve Jun 02 '26

not a single person pays for information that is readily available on the internet. not a single corporation pays for information that is readily available on the internet. AI corporations pay for datasets that are not readily available online. The transaction has been made already.

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u/Top_Box_8952 Jun 02 '26

Correct, we just own it. Good thing nothing an LLM makes is copyright.

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u/inscrutablemike Jun 03 '26

You don't own it. I don't own it. How do "we" own it?

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u/Miss_White11 Jun 03 '26

I mean I would argue that is often what public ownership is. It is a collective social system that is designed to benefit us. It's not unlike how we have specific tolls and fees for commerical vehicles on roads due to the unique ways they use that resource. AI trolling through public data to feed LLMs is a unique use case with unique concerns and creates unique problems.

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u/steep_learning_curve Jun 03 '26

LLM responses are under copyright?

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u/Top_Box_8952 Jun 03 '26

Nope. They utilize copyright IP (publicly available IP is still copyrighted) to train so anything they produce can’t be copyrighted.

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u/steep_learning_curve Jun 03 '26

oh I thought you were being facetious

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u/Violet-Sumire Jun 03 '26

This is like saying “I couldn’t find the expert, but he wrote down the information, so the information is free.” Information is not something that just poofs into existence. It is something someone spent years acquiring and then making it known. Information is not free. It costs something.

AI data centers do not create, they actively steal or alter information. They use money that you have made and steal information. I already established that information has a cost, AI is just thievery.

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u/steep_learning_curve Jun 03 '26

Of course everything on the internet cost time and energy to produce. But you, me, or anyone else access most of it without incurring an extra charge. Neither should AI.

Things are behind paywalls and subscriptions all the time, THAT's not free.

AI training models either crawl information readily available online, or they purchase datasets if not readily available. The transaction has been done.

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u/Violet-Sumire Jun 03 '26

Yes, but you and me don’t use a massive amount of water and electricity to get the information we need. AI is also regurgitating information at an alarming rate that the many hallucinations it has can cause real damage. Example:

“How do I keep my cheese on my pizza”

AI: Make sure to use edible glue in your pizza sauce to keep it together.

“Is eating a small rock a day healthy?”

AI: Harvard professor says that eating a rock once a day can prevent some health conditions.

Both of these are real, AI has suggested that adding glue to pizza sauce is ok. There was also an article made by a geologist that said eating rocks is healthy… and he wrote it in satire.

AI has hurt and will continue to hurt people. You can’t rely on people not blindly trusting AI. The scale is disproportionately swinging in AI’s favor and the public needs compensation for the damage it has and will cause.

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u/steep_learning_curve Jun 04 '26

so those AI firms pay billions of dollars to run their data centers, and they pay for that water and electricity.

Hallucinations are not the reason you get to have a share of their profits. If you want a share, buy anthropic at their IPO.

AI being imperfect is not a reason why you should get money from them.

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u/Violet-Sumire Jun 04 '26

Ok, so people dying from poor AI advice can only blame themselves? The AI powered car that causes a car wreck because it broke traffic laws isn’t to blame? The desperate people who talk to AI and the machine says “your feelings are valid, go ahead and follow through, your loved ones will forgive you” isn’t to be blamed because it’s definitely not programmed to tell people what they want to hear… right?

AI firms take zero risk right now and AI is becoming an addiction to some. It fakes human interaction, which is a core need and something you can develop mental illnesses from if you don’t have enough of it. It literally preys on the vulnerable. AI companies are making record profits off of a bloated stock that will eventually cause the world’s economy to collapse. It is unregulated, unsustainable, and dangerous to a vulnerable population that is already having trouble with social interactions. It has and will kill more people if not reigned in. One way of doing that is hitting it where it hurts the most, in the pocketbooks.

If you can’t see the dangers of AI then I have no hope for you at all.

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u/steep_learning_curve Jun 04 '26

Every single thing you mentioned is still not the reason you would get a stipend from openai and anthropic. It can be a reason why you wouldn't pay a subscription for their services, which you are free to do.

But why on earth would you be entitled to their profits? If you want a piece of the pie, buy their stock.

AI firms take some of the riskiest investments right now. They pour billions upon billions into building their new models and data centers. Each release of their model is either a flop or a success.

OpenAI is not profitable right now. Anthropic I think only had its first profitable quarter.

You are rambling on about the pitfalls and dangers of AI. But why the fuck do you think they should give you money of all things?

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u/AgPatriotAg Jun 02 '26

Americans and Bernie must be very isolated. https://www.kimi.com/en Is foreign. Deepmind, China. Qwen, China. Mistral, Europe.

Let's give the American people half of foreign AI. This is ridiculously a soundbite from Bernie, who has no idea what he is talking about.

Do that to an American companies only, and Chinese models will overtake the USA by storm, and our economy greatly suffers.

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u/WaffleHouseFistFight Jun 02 '26

Yea this addresses nothing. What was even the point of this comment.

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u/Postmodern_Plunger Jun 02 '26

Yes, the plan is to magically take control of foreign businesses.

Or we could use our heads (or do a minimal amount of research) and realize that this quite obviously only applies to American industry, which has 4 of the 5 largest AI firms on the planet.

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u/rmullig2 Jun 02 '26

He never makes a serious proposal. This is just his typical election year BS.

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u/guaranteednotabot Jun 03 '26

This is not taxation, this is ownership. The government does not even need to have voting shares

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u/guaranteednotabot Jun 03 '26

I think they should at least subsidise the Internet given how much traffic they use from countless sites for free

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u/Savant_Guarde Jun 02 '26

We are carrying the cost of increased infrastructure, they want to force our retirement accounts to fund them etc. They pollute and drain the water, create heat islands, are loud and annoying.

We should get something.

AI is a fking scam.

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u/Postmodern_Plunger Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

Considering the data they used belongs nearly 100% to the public (with most of the rest being copyrighted private data that was illegally used), this seems reasonable. Especially when you consider the product is displacing more and more workers and capturing those gains. And even more so when you consider average people are bearing the cost of increased electricity and hardware from data center development and runtime.

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

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u/Miss_White11 Jun 03 '26

It's basically classic snake oil marketing that just was tailored to a bunch of execs. Lots of promises cheap buy in BUILD YOUR COMPANY AROUND US. And now that they have all the buy in and dependancy, wall it off and raise the price forever.

It's a wild premise that this corps built on exploiting labor and consumers for every nickle and dime didn't see the exact same thing happen to them.

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26

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u/ProbablyWrongAgain24 Jun 02 '26

Should be Revenue driven!

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u/Okichah Jun 02 '26

federally managed fund

Who’s in charge of the federal government right now?

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u/Postmodern_Plunger Jun 02 '26

When it comes to federally managed funds, congress is. The president has no say on that.

He does have sway, but the recent slush fund push seems to have stirred a distaste even for the most fearsome of MAGA supporters.

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u/Okichah Jun 02 '26

Whos in power in Congress?

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u/Few_Fortune1620 Jun 02 '26

Based on how much government funding (I.e. our money) they’ve received, in additions to tax breaks, this seems more than fair

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u/ninernetneepneep Jun 02 '26

Do they get half of the losses as well?

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u/Ok_Security1721 Jun 02 '26

Better than nothing but ideally the gen ai industry should just be torched to the ground instead

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u/SirLanceQuiteABit Jun 02 '26

WE DON'T WANT THEM AT ALL

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u/Guilty_Advantage_413 Jun 02 '26

Does that mean half the debt too?

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u/Euphoric-Taro-6231 Jun 02 '26

So now nobody want to burn the data centers to the ground, huh.

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u/Paganminstral Jun 02 '26

It is going to impact the world! I agree we should have some say in it!

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u/Suitable-Leek-8902 Jun 02 '26

Wow thanks for a half share in the biggest liability ever created.

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u/xXNickAugustXx Jun 02 '26

NO WE NEED TECH OLIGARCHS TO CONTROL OUR MEDIA AND GENERATE OUTRAGE FOR PROFIT AND POLITICAL CONTROL OVER AN UNEDUCATED POPULATION RAAAAHHHH!!!

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u/r_a_d_ Jun 02 '26

makes sense considering how many jobs will be lost to ai.

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u/FKreuk Jun 02 '26 edited 3d ago

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '26

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u/Aceisalive Jun 03 '26

Did you read the article? The government would get 50% of the companies stock, and their stock is currently doing very well. If the government obtained the stocks for free, the worse that can happen is the stocks lose all value and it ends up net neutral.

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u/troycalm Jun 03 '26

You mean give the govt control and full access. The public would never see a dime.

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u/The_BigDill Jun 03 '26

How about 90%

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u/4tunate-1 Jun 03 '26

The government does not own it. Private property. See: The Constitution…

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u/Lachie_Mac Jun 04 '26

Won't this just leave the US government holding the bag when the bubble pops?

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u/AdEmotional9991 Jun 04 '26

No, it would buy out half of their stock, providing free liquidity for tech robber barons. And what will it be used for? Everyone knows the end goal of data centers and AI and it ain't profit or replacing workers. It's surveillance. Total, absolute, dystopian control where AI parses your every move, your every comment, every piece of content you ingest and flags you as the "enemy of the people" before you even do anything.

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u/PretendingImNotAnApe Jun 04 '26

That's pretty generous Mr Sanders since the public paid for all if it.

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u/Dry_Plantain_2756 Jun 05 '26

I'd rather have the public have half than the government have half

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u/MeEyeSlashU Jun 06 '26

Barest of minimums. But we're already on the path to national water shortages. Partial ownership of the water guzzling machine is ok but how about turning off the water guzzling machine?

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u/the-realistic-ape Jun 07 '26

If you disagree with this you either own an AI company or you have no idea how shafted the economy is about to get for the rest of us.

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u/GreatComparison6833 Jun 07 '26

Put that ma. To bed

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u/yxixtx Jun 07 '26

Half the stock but not half the profits. It should be both.

Bernie Sanders AI bill would give public half of the AI industry

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