Steve Bannon turns on Trump to team up with Bernie Sanders over AI threat

Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and conservative podcaster Steve Bannon are uniting on Tuesday to demand stringent regulations on artificial intelligence, forming an unexpected partnership rooted in shared concerns that the emerging technology poses serious risks to human welfare.The two political opponents will address the same Washington gathering, showing how growing apprehension about automated systems is fracturing traditional political lines.Widespread anxiety regarding the potential harms of advanced systems has intensified recently. Last week, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon announced his resignation, explaining in part that "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." These safety warnings, coupled with calls from top executives to decelerate technological expansion, triggered a global decline in AI-related equities on Monday.Senator Bernie Sanders and conservative podcaster Steve Bannon will together on Tuesday call for restrictions on AI systems (AFP/Getty)Bannon, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump, took aim at the president's reluctance to enact federal oversight, attributing the hands-off stance directly to corporate influence. On his Monday broadcast, Bannon insisted that federal lawmakers must not block individual states from imposing local restrictions. "The American people are not going to be supplicants to these tech oligarchs," Bannon asserted.The debate coincides with ongoing deliberations among U.S. senators over draft legislation that would prevent states from implementing rules targeting high-level AI risks, following earlier unsuccessful attempts to restrict state-level AI measures in the chamber.Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., walks onto the stage during a Get Out the Vote campaign event supporting Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey in Boston (AP)Conversely, Trump on Monday dismissed warnings from corporate leaders over the weekend about potential abuses of artificial intelligence, maintaining that sufficient regulatory safeguards are already in place across the country.Organizers confirmed that the Washington gathering will also feature addresses from AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, leading the nation's largest labor federation, and Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Sanders, alongside progressive House Rep. Greg Casar, has advocated for federal laws to halt the creation of tools capable of "overthrowing or undermining the U.S. government," until a specialized agency is established to monitor the industry.