SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Yes, we must hit the pause button on AI before it is too late

Very few people disagree.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will profoundly impact the lives of every man, woman and child in our country.

These revolutionary technologies will radically change our economy and, quite likely, eliminate tens of millions of jobs over the next decade.

They will result in the evisceration of our privacy, negatively impact the mental health of our children, radically alter how we as human beings relate to each other, undermine our democracy and transform the very nature of warfare.

FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS SEE AI AS A RISK TO PRIVACY AND PAYCHECKS Further, AI data centers are raising electricity prices, straining water systems and harming the environment.

That is why 75% of Americans oppose data centers near where they live and why over 500 communities have put in place restrictions on their construction.

Let’s be clear: this revolutionary transformation of society is being driven by the wealthiest people on Earth – including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg , Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison.

FOX NEWS POLL: MOVE OVER BIG BROTHER, VOTERS SEE BIG TECH AS GREATER THREAT TO US As most Americans understand, these Big Tech oligarchs are not investing many hundreds of billions of dollars into AI because they want to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.

Rather, they are doing it because they want to become even richer and more powerful than they already are – no matter how many lives they ruin in the process.

And here is something even more alarming.

Over just the past month, there has been a frightening new story nearly every day about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results.

Last month, we learned that AI has been used for the first time ever to create new viruses.

In the wrong hands, this could lead to new bioweapons that might result in the deaths of tens of millions of people.

REP.