Sanders pushes public AI dividend: $1,000 a year for Americans

Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to create a US sovereign wealth fund for the AI industry, valued at about $7 trillion, which would grant the American public a 50% stake in top AI labs and pay taxpayers $1,000 annually through the fund. Framed as AI being a public resource derived from humanity’s collective creativity, the plan could eventually funnel funds into social programs and broader social safety nets as part of a universal basic capital concept, with bipartisan interest and some support from OpenAI and Anthropic.