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Sanders Proposes 'Corporate Death Penalty' for AI Developers, Sparking Concerns Among Experts
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In Short: Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a 'corporate death penalty' for U.S. artificial intelligence developers, a move that experts warn could hand a crucial edge in the global AI arms race to China and Russia.
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation that would impose a 'corporate death penalty' and up to 20 years in prison on American AI developers, a measure that experts argue could severely handicap domestic innovation and give foreign adversaries an advantage in the AI race.
The proposal would strip firms of their legal authority to conduct business in the United States if they attempt to circumvent the federal prohibition, a move that experts believe could have severe economic and national security implications.
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- But while progressives frame the measure as an urgent check on "AI oligarchs," experts are warning that imposing sweeping criminal penalties on U.S. firms will severely handicap domestic innovation, while foreign adversaries will be able to continue expanding their capabilities unchecked.
- "If the United States stops developing advanced AI, China is unlikely to follow. Surrendering the lead in a potentially transformative technology would carry serious economic and national security costs," Daniel Castro, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a leading nonpartisan tech-innovation policy think tank, said in response to Sanders' proposal.
- Greg Casar, D-Texas, introduced legislation Thursday seeking to hit American artificial intelligence developers with a "corporate death penalty" and up to 20 years in prison— a move critics warn will hand a crucial edge in the global AI arms race to Beijing and Moscow.
- “I support the death penalty, but I hate the way it’s being executed,” Becerra told state lawmakers in 2017.
- “If you commit some heinous crime where you have taken the life of someone else, and you knew that there was a death penalty in place in that place where you committed that crime, then you should face the punishment for what you’ve done,” he explained.
- Becerra’s challenger in the Nov. 3 election, former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton, opposes the death penalty but said he would rescind Newsom’s moratorium because it defies the will of voters.
- Becerra has said he is concerned by how death sentences historically have been applied, including a highly disproportionate number of condemned inmates who are Black or Latino men and cases in which they later have been exonerated of crimes.
- In California, county district attorneys are responsible for prosecuting the vast majority of accused murderers when they go to trial and also deciding whether to seek the death penalty.