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Reuters

Progressive US Senator Bernie ⁠Sanders and Steve Bannon, a close ally of President Donald Trump, both called on Tuesday for stronger oversight of artificial intelligence, uniting two political adversaries around concerns that the technology will harm humans.
The rare display of bipartisan concern at the same Washington gathering reflects deepening anxiety over unregulated AI, with lawmakers in both parties questioning Trump’s hands-off approach even as the technology raises fears about job losses, safety and the concentration of power among a handful of tech companies.
“AI has the potential to eliminate tens of millions of jobs, wiping out entire professions and ‌making it harder for our young people to enter the workforce,” Sanders said.
He added: “As many scientists believe could happen, this technology will escape human control with potentially catastrophic consequences”.
Sanders drew applause from the room when he criticised tech executives for centralising control over AI technology, including SpaceX CEO and former Trump adviser Elon Musk.
“Last month, we learned that AI has been used for the first time ever to create new viruses. In the wrong hands, this could lead to new bioweapons and a potential global pandemic that could lead to the deaths of tens of millions of people,” Sanders said.
Sanders called on Trump to negotiate a treaty with Chinese President Xi Jinping at their summit next week to pause AI development.
Bannon, a former White House strategist during Trump’s first presidential term, has criticised Trump’s approach to overseeing AI, ⁠placing the blame for the president’s unwillingness to regulate the technology squarely on tech companies. On his Monday podcast, Bannon said Congress should not pass laws that prohibit states from enforcing their own rules for the technology.

“Here’s what ‌we have to do first: to slow down the pace so that we can understand exactly what’s going on,” Bannon said on Tuesday. He praised Sanders for the way he summarised the risks of AI and said the country has to rise above partisanship on the issue.
“I don’t think you could find any too harder partisans ‌than Bernie Sanders on the left and Steve Bannon on the right,” he said.
Bannon said Congress will take too long to pass legislation slowing the development of AI. “This is going to ⁠have to be executive action,” Bannon said.
He said ⁠the US must cut off China from American-made computer chips.
Trump on Monday played down concerns expressed by industry leaders over the weekend about the misuse of artificial intelligence harming people, saying the US already has guardrails in place for the powerful technology.
Backing Trump’s position on Tuesday, ‌Republican US House Speaker Mike Johnson said there cannot be a moratorium on artificial intelligence development without losing the competitive edge to China and that AI companies can regulate themselves.


“They can self-regulate. They don’t need the government to tell them to slow it down. If they want to slow ‌it down, ‌they should,” Johnson told reporters.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Todd Blanche, the US Attorney General, accused Democrats of trying to influence November’s midterm congressional elections by politicising the issue of AI.
The view that regulations will ‌harm US companies’ ability to compete with their Chinese counterparts is shared by tech executives, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI company Anthropic, speaking in San Francisco on Tuesday, called for better AI safety ⁠standards. “Let’s invest more in safety,” he said.
Recent surveys have found majorities of Americans worry the technology could be used to eliminate jobs, raise costs for families or otherwise cause social harm.
The US House ⁠of Representatives ended its long summer break on Monday, with members in the House and Senate holding private conversations about whether or not to legislate on AI, especially after Trump said there was no need for legislative action.
Congress has been criticised in the past for lacking the collective expertise to rein in or regulate technology companies.
Speaking to Reuters, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio said: “This process ‌of legislating takes so long. Imagine AI four years in. ‌We’re dealing with stuff that isn’t even relevant in four years”.
Residents in several states have also challenged proposals for new data centres, a critical component of the AI boom. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published in June, 77 per cent of Americans worry AI-driven data centres will raise electricity costs.
Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon captured public attention last week when he said he resigned from the company, in part because the “people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade”.
Also on Tuesday, Andrew Ferguson, the chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission, expressed suspicions over AI companies seeking antitrust exemptions while they also lobby for new regulations.


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United States

Unlikely allies Sanders and Bannon call for stronger AI oversight

US Senator Bernie Sanders speaking at the Pro-Human Assembly on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Steve Bannon speaking at the The Pro-Human Assembly in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Anthropic boss Amodei calls for AI slowdown, Altman and Musk agree

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, takes part in an event in Paris in May 2024. Photo: AFP

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo, Japan, in February 2025. Photo: Reuters

AI researcher quits Anthropic over superintelligence fears: ‘gambling with our lives’

Anthropic has argued that if it unilaterally pauses its work, its less cautious rivals would dominate the industry, making it less safe overall. Photo illustration: Reuters

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei speaks at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2025. Photo: TNS

Trump condemns ‘sick conspiracy’ against AI, says he is only guardrail needed

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One while travelling back from Ireland to Maryland on Sunday. Trump has slammed concerns raised by US industry leaders about AI's potential dangers. Photo: AFP

Moonshot, DeepSeek secretly routed user requests to Claude, Anthropic claims

The Anthropic report accuses Kimi model developer Moonshot of secretly showing users Claude model outputs and passing them off as Kimi’s, then using those exchanges to improve its own models. Illustration: Reuters

US tech firm Anthropic has accused Chinese AI giants Moonshot and DeepSeek of covertly routing customer requests to its Claude models. Illustration: Reuters

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World

United States & Canada

Ideological adversaries warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence amid public concern over unregulated tech


Ideological adversaries warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence amid public concern over unregulated tech.


Unlikely allies Sanders and Bannon call for stronger AI oversight

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Ideological adversaries warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence amid public concern over unregulated tech

Ideological adversaries warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence amid public concern over unregulated tech