By Ben Meiselas
I’ve interviewed Senator Bernie Sanders many times, but this conversation was particularly powerful. In our latest discussion on the MeidasTouch Network, Sanders delivered a sobering assessment of the forces reshaping American life, from the unraveling of the Trump movement to the alarming rise of AI and robotics, and the political system’s refusal to grapple with the crisis already unfolding around us.
“We are living in an unprecedented moment in American history,” Sanders told me. “Maybe going back to the 1860s and the Civil War.” He wasn’t being hyperbolic. As he traveled to red, blue, and purple communities alike, Sanders said he’s seeing an electorate not divided so much by ideology as bound together by frustration, precarity, and a sense that the economic game has been rigged by the wealthiest people on the planet.
“Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “They can’t afford health care. They can’t afford childcare. They can’t afford housing.” Meanwhile, billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos “have never, ever had it so good.”
Sanders recently released a sweeping 25-page report on the risks posed by artificial intelligence and automation, a study the media has virtually ignored despite its implications for nearly every working American.
AI, Sanders explained, threatens to eliminate “millions and millions of jobs,” and the people most aggressively pushing these technologies forward are the same billionaires already at the top of the economic hierarchy. “You tell me why they’re doing that,” he said. “You think they’re doing that because they’re thinking, ‘Oh man, this is going to be something that will improve life for working people?’”
He quoted Musk directly: “AI and robots will replace all jobs. Working will be optional.” As he reminded viewers, the CEOs overseeing the AI revolution are not elected, not accountable, and not operating with the interests of working families in mind.
The consequences, Sanders argued, will be sweeping. Factory workers could see entire industries disappear. Young people may find entry-level jobs simply vanish. Communities could face soaring energy and water costs as massive data centers proliferate. And many Americans, increasingly lonely in a post-pandemic world, are already turning to AI as their primary form of companionship.
“What are the implications if my best friend is an AI?” Sanders asked. “What does that mean for humanity and for our well-being?”
The senator emphasized that these dangers are not theoretical. They’re already surfacing in the lives of the people he meets on the road. At a rally in Davenport, Iowa, Sanders asked a crowd of more than 2,000 working-class attendees if they believed AI would benefit them. “Two hands went up,” he recalled.
Yet the political establishment remains silent. There seems to be at the administration regime level, zero discussion about the consequences that people are worried about,” he said. The focus, instead, is on how the billionaires can have unfettered, unrestrained development.
Sanders believes the country must respond with the same scale of ambition as the technological upheaval itself: a shorter workweek with no loss of pay, worker ownership in AI-driven companies, mandatory profit-sharing when automation increases productivity, and strict regulation that places democratic values, not billionaire profit margins, at the center of innovation.
“AI and robotics are revolutionary, transformative,” he said. “We need a revolutionary and transformative response.”
His warning also came with a reminder about the dangerous political realities surrounding it. Trump’s presidency has functioned as a Ponzi scheme, selling workers empty promises while enriching the very oligarchs accelerating the crisis. “Maybe it’s a golden age for you and your friends,” Sanders said, referring to Trump. “It ain’t a golden age for us.”
In the most pro-worker way possible, Sanders distilled the stakes: either AI becomes a tool that liberates people from drudgery, or it becomes a weapon that concentrates wealth and power into even fewer hands.
The window to choose is closing.
I hope you enjoy this nuanced conversation I had with Senator Sanders about a topic that is already impacting all of our lives. The interview is available above ad-free as a thank you for subscribing to this Substack. You can also listen to it on-the-go right now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you find audio podcasts. One final note: tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be airing Sanders’ event with Nobel laureate Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, also known as the ‘Godfather of AI,’ live on our YouTube channel at around 6pm ET. Keep a lookout on our channel for the link!
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