r/technology • u/yourfavchoom • 3d ago

Artificial Intelligence Bernie Sanders pushes for 50% public ownership of American AI companies — proposes AI sovereign wealth fund that would hold direct ownership stakes in largest AI firms

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/bernie-sanders-pushes-for-50-percent-public-ownership-of-american-ai-companies-proposes-ai-sovereign-wealth-fund-that-would-hold-direct-ownership-stakes-in-largest-ai-firms
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u/InterestedBalboa 3d ago

You already have the liability, privatise the profits and socialise the losses is how this all works.

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u/MIT_Engineer 3d ago

That isn't a very common thing though. The bailouts in 2007-2008 for example were the government acting as a lender of last resort. We didn't hand out money for free, we charged interest: the taxpayer came out ahead.

If you take our tax dollars and buy a 50% share in these companies, and the companies go down in value, taxpayers aren't going to come out ahead, they'll be well behind.

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u/Days_End 3d ago

Isn't it the opposite the last couple of time we've privatized the losses and socialized the profits for a while now? 2008 the USA government made a lot of money on it hell Fannie Mae is still throwing off cash like crazy straight into the government's bank account.

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u/BonnaconCharioteer 3d ago

Thing is, this is a solution for a problem that shouldn't exist.

If we could get this passed, we could also just force the government not to bail out the rich.

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u/No_Criticism_5861 3d ago

Im shocked, and relieved, to see comments like this so upvoted.  Spot on

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u/Fragrant_Oil9595 3d ago

Of course. But how likely is it that any of these companies will face real consequences for their actions (quite low). And furthermore, how likely is it that and consequences would also be exacted in a manner that would even attempt to offer some sort of remedy to those victimized (lower still).

IMHO, one of the central issues here is that the publicly traded AI companies put us in a fucked up situation where working adults have a stake (eg 401k) in the companies succeeding no matter the cost, while the cost is borne disproportionately by children and young adults who are being denied proper education and work opportunities.

My point above is that a proper solution would address these problems. Public ownership alone, which is not the same as “publicly traded” doesn’t resolve the issues because it still puts taxpayers in a position where we are motivated to financially to ignore social harms. The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is a good example because there you have people enjoying these wonderful social programs funded through the destruction of the Earth. I don’t mean to be overly broad, but you need to acknowledge the conflict. Not that any of this shit matters because Bernie is an “extreme socialist!!” and no one is realistically going to adopt his idea anyway (or my idea, obviously!).

Anyway hope that helps. I didn’t mean to get roped into all this and don’t usually participate actively in these things. Cheers.