Bernie Sanders Demands Big Tech Share AI Wealth With Workers—Or Else

Silicon Valley's AI gold rush is lining pockets—just not those of the workers building it. Senator Bernie Sanders just fired a warning shot.

The progressive firebrand is demanding tech giants ensure employees get a fair cut of AI's trillion-dollar windfall. No more 'move fast and break people' while C-suite bonuses hit record highs.

Workers vs. algorithms: The new class war

As language models replace call centers and robots automate warehouses, Sanders argues the humans training these systems deserve more than pizza parties and pink slips. His ultimatum comes as AI productivity gains disproportionately flow to shareholders—surprise, surprise.

The Vermont senator's move pressures an industry already under scrutiny for exploitative labor practices. From underpaid data labelers to overworked engineers, tech's dirty little secret is that artificial intelligence runs on very human suffering.

Wall Street analysts predict the standoff could spark the first major labor battles of the AI era. Because nothing unites workers like watching their jobs get automated while some hedge fund manager buys a seventh yacht with the profits.

AI to benefit both the employee and the CEO

The relationship between AI and employees is a bittersweet one. However, it is leaning more toward the bitter side. This is because AI is threatening to take their jobs. Statistically,  nine out of ten employers plan to use AI-enabled solutions and generative AI over the next five years.

In addition, research done by Forbes revealed that 52% of more than 5,000 professionals are afraid of how AI will affect their jobs. Therefore, the concept of AI being of benefit to the employees WOULD be a relief to most people because an increase in efficiency could mean that they can finish their current tasks faster without losing pay.

“Technology is gonna work to improve us, not just the people who own the technology and the CEOs of large corporations,” Sanders said. “You are a worker, your productivity is increasing because we give you AI, right? Instead of throwing you out on the street, I’m gonna reduce your work week to 32 hours.”

On the other hand, the tech elite have their benefit because of the idea that AI will make companies more productive. This will allow companies to do even more because their workers will be able to take on more tasks, or they can save money by cutting staff. 

Companies that have seen success through AI adoption

“And by the way, not a radical idea,” Sanders said. “There are companies around the world that are doing it with some success.” For instance, in the UK, 61 companies with a total of 2,900 workers tried out a four-day work week in the second half of 2022. 

Nineteen of the 23 companies that shared financial information saw their sales stay about the same or go up by 1.4% from the start of the study to the end. Also, Kickstarter has had a four-day work week since 2021, and Microsoft Japan tried out a four-day work week in 2019 and said it made them 40% more productive.

In addition, companies like IBM, Shopify, and Coca-Cola, which were early users of AI solutions, used to only use the technology for routine tasks. Now, they use it to boost employee productivity and speed up top-line growth directly.

Analysts think that the global AI market will continue to grow and reach a value of more than $240 billion. AI adoption by the industry is growing by up to 20% each year. Generative AI use ROSE from 55% to 75% between 2023 and 2024. Companies get a 3.7x return on every dollar they spend on GenAI and such technologies.

Goldman Sachs predicted that AI will add 15% to the world’s GDP over the next ten years. J.P. Morgan is less optimistic. The firm predicted that the price would go up by 8% to 9%. Daron Acemoğlu, an economics professor at MIT, predicted it will only add 1% to 1.5% to growth.

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