Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon join forces against the “tech oligarchs”

One of the many potential applications of artificial intelligence is its ability to bring people on opposite sides of the political spectrum together. What is happening in Washington brings to mind the time when Winston Churchill, criticised for allying himself with Stalin to destroy the Reich, replied that he would have allied himself even with the devil to eliminate Hitler. In this case, the devil is AI – or perhaps it is the ‘tech bros’ who have funded, promoted and created it – and the odd couple of allies is Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon. On the one hand, the Jewish senator who has legitimised socialism in America; on the other, the ideologue of the nationalist alt-right, the guru to whom the ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) movement owes so much. According to the well-known ‘horseshoe theory’, the two – the ’68-era senator and the podcaster-strategist – have decided to organise an event today called the ‘Pro-Human Assembly’, in the wake of the public debate on AI sparked by the alarmist mea culpa of certain industry employees who revealed that robots could kill us all within the next ten years.

The aim of this unlikely pair is to persuade Congress to find a way, as a matter of urgency, to curb the impact of new technologies. The guiding principle is to ‘keep AI in human hands’, that is, to prevent it from managing itself. At their own version of Yalta, Bannon and Bernie also brought in Hollywood figures such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ashley Judd, who is campaigning against the non-consensual use of deepfakes featuring actresses. Joining them were the parents of young people who took their own lives after interacting with chatbots. The two organisers seem intent on highlighting all the negative aspects of machine learning, ranging from environmental concerns – data centres that consume water and energy – to the defence of manual labour in American industry. “AI should serve humanity, not the other way round,” states the Declaration for Human-Centred AI, which is at the heart of the event.

“American citizens will not start begging a handful of tech oligarchs,” said Bannon. What unites the two is also this opposition to the ‘tech bros’. It is well known that Bannon detests Elon Musk, whom he has described as a “truly evil” person and “a parasite, an illegal immigrant”. Sanders detests him just as much, having based his political message in recent years on opposition to the mega-billionaires who influence elections. “They’re only doing it for the money,” Bernie said of AI entrepreneurs, urging them, for the sake of humanity, to put everything “on hold”, because “it’s not too late to avert disaster”. And it is true that some CEOs have said that perhaps it really is the right thing to do, but that everyone must agree, because if just one goes ahead, the result will be the same. “The oligarchs,” said Bannon, “have finally been forced to admit that they lied from the very beginning about the dangers of unchecked acceleration, and have put the nation and humanity at risk”. While figures such as Sam Altman and Dario Amodei appear open to dialogue, it is Trump who now needs to be persuaded.

Sanders’ spokesperson has made it clear that he and Bannon do not wish to appear together or share the stage; they are not coordinating their efforts, but are simply fighting during this time of crisis to slow everything down, sending a message to the President before he meets his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Trump, however, rang the CEO of Nvidia whilst he was on stage in Los Angeles, saying that it is all a conspiracy, that AI will not destroy the world, and that it is a hoax perpetuated by political opponents or perhaps by China. In Washington, everyone knows that the person who is persuading Trump to stick to his line – presenting it to him as if it were a Cold War-style arms race – is David Sacks. The tech entrepreneur – a member of the ‘PayPal mafia’ and the president’s adviser on AI – is telling Trump not to bow to the apocalyptic cries. Inside the Oval Office, even the unflappable Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, is trying to counter Sacks, so far without success. Alongside her are a number of senators and MPs who, on this issue, fear losing the mid-term elections in November. For Trump, a man who grew up at the height of the US-USSR rivalry, the prospect of beating China – and the idea that AI will generate a fortune – continues to prevent him from changing his mind – “it’s more important than the internet; it’s the new oil”, the president has said.