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Sanders pushes 'death penalty' for crucial US industry that could give advantage to foreign adversaries
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In Short: Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation that would impose severe penalties on U.S. artificial intelligence developers, a move critics warn could hand a critical technological edge to foreign adversaries.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation that would impose severe penalties on U.S. artificial intelligence developers, a move critics warn could hand a critical technological edge to foreign adversaries. Experts argue that such sweeping criminal penalties will severely handicap domestic innovation, while foreign competitors will continue to expand their capabilities unchecked.
Greg Casar, a Democratic representative from Texas, introduced the legislation, seeking to impose a 'corporate death penalty' on American AI developers, which critics argue will hand a crucial edge in the global AI arms race to Beijing and Moscow.
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- "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.
- Tech companies found attempting to circumvent the federal prohibition would face a "corporate death penalty"—an unprecedented enforcement mechanism that strips a firm's legal authority to conduct business in the United States.
- “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.
- “I find that reprehensible,” said Mike Farrell, president of Death Penalty Focus, an advocacy group.