Bernie Sanders, labor leaders warn of AI risks for workers

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the leaders of several major labor unions warned Thursday about the risks AI poses to workers amid concerns about the technology’s ability to replace jobs.

Sanders, who is pushing for a moratorium on data center construction, argued that AI could displace both blue-collar and white-collar workers.

“How the hell do you go forward and throw millions of people out on the street without planning what’s going to happen?” the senator said at a press conference.

“Where do we want to go with the mission?” he continued. “Does AI and robotics have some positive things? Yeah. How do we use it to improve human life and not just make Mr. [Elon] Musk and his billionaire friends even richer?”

He was joined by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Becky Pringle, among other union leaders.

“We are here to sound the alarms on AI and advanced technology because this is a worker’s issue, and this race that everybody seems to think we’re in to advance AI at all costs, with no guardrails or protections for people, is reckless and dangerous,” Shuler said.

The pushback comes as several AI leaders have suggested the technology could impact large swaths of workers.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned last year that as much as half of entry-level white-collar jobs could be eliminated by AI, while Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman suggested in February that the technology could replace all white-collar work in 18 months.

Others, like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have forecast less dramatic scenarios for the workforce but still acknowledge that AI could disrupt the labor market.

Meanwhile, the push toward physical AI, like robotics, has spurred concerns about the fallout for blue-collar work.

Fain on Thursday compared the technology to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), pointing to what he described as the “false promises of shared prosperity” of the trade deal. NAFTA has been widely blamed for a decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs.

“The same greedy corporate power brokers today want us to believe that killing millions of jobs in the name of AI will be a good thing, and the working class knows better,” Fain said, adding, “We will not have our dignity robbed. We will not be made an adjunct to the tool of AI, and we will be heard.”

Both Pringle and Weingarten also took swipes at first lady Melania Trump over her recent appearance at a White House education event alongside a humanoid robot, which she suggested could eventually serve as an educator.

“Despite the false claims of the first lady, AI robots cannot replace human teachers,” Pringle said.