Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and conservative strategist Steve Bannon forged an unexpected alliance and appeared together Tuesday at a Washington gathering to demand aggressive restrictions on artificial intelligence. Their warnings come as fears over AI’s rapid development surge across government, industry and the public. The bipartisan pressure could force a new reckoning in Washington over how—and whether—the United States can slow a technology already reshaping global power, labor markets and national security.
Sanders opened the event with a stark assessment of AI’s “growing threat,” arguing that unchecked development could eliminate tens of millions of jobs and potentially escape human control, a scenario he said scientists believe could lead to “catastrophic consequences.” Bannon followed by calling AI “the defining issue of our time,” insisting the country must “slow down the pace” before the technology outstrips human oversight. Their shared stage underscored how concerns over AI safety and data‑center expansion have begun to collapse traditional partisan boundaries. Sanders and Bannon appeared at the Pro‑Human Assembly, a Future of Life Institute event that drew lawmakers, union leaders, researchers and celebrities united by escalating alarm over AI’s trajectory.
The gathering came days after former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned that AI “could kill us all by the end of the decade,” a statement that ricocheted through Washington and Silicon Valley. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment. Sanders, a democratic socialist, has long argued that tech executives are centralizing power and pushing AI systems that could destabilize labor markets and national security.
He warned Tuesday that AI has already been used “to create new viruses,” raising the specter of bioweapons and future pandemics. He urged President Donald Trump to negotiate a pause in AI development with Chinese President Xi Jinping at their upcoming summit. Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, broke sharply with the president's dismissive stance on AI dangers.
While Trump has called warnings about AI a “HOAX” and accused critics of fueling a conspiracy against data centers, Bannon argued that the U.S. must quickly impose new guardrails. He said Congress is too slow to act and insisted that “executive action” is the only viable path to slowing AI development. He also demanded the U.S. cut China off from American‑made chips, framing AI as a geopolitical battleground that cannot be left to tech companies.
Their convergence highlights how AI has become one of the rare issues capable of drawing far‑left and far‑right figures into the same room. As Bannon put it, “I don’t think you could find any too harder partisans than Bernie Sanders on the left and Steve Bannon on the right.” The Sanders‑Bannon warnings mirror a dramatic rise in public concern. Polling shows majorities of Americans fear AI will eliminate jobs, raise costs and cause broader social harm.
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