Nov. 18, 2025, 2:45 PM ESTBy Jared PerloThe robot warriors are coming, and so are the zillionaires, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., warned in a wide-ranging interview with NBC News on the rise and risks of artificial intelligence.“I think we are not all that far away from the development of robotic soldiers,” Sanders said Sunday. “Right now, politicians — at least sometimes — have to worry about loss of life when they decide to go to war. If you don’t have to worry about loss of life, and what you worry about is loss of robots, what does that mean for issues of war and peace globally? It’s a big issue.” Sanders is known for his focus on the millionaires and billionaires of the world, and how the U.S. government might favor them. In recent months, he’s turned his attention to AI, which he says is an extension of his primary concerns about wealth inequality.“Today, before we have seen the full implications of robotics and AI, you’re looking at unprecedented wealth and income concentration,” Sanders said. “The top 1% of Americans own more wealth than the bottom 93%,” he said. “All of these zillionaires — the Musks, the Ellisons, the Bezoses, the Zuckerbergs — are investing hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars into AI and robotics. What is the result of all that?”Elon Musk, the CEO of xAI, was just approved to receive a pay package from one of his other companies, Tesla, that could make him the world’s first trillionaire. “It will mean even more wealth and even more political power for these guys at the top, while our democracy gets weaker and weaker. Working people will see a significant decline in their standard of living unless we turn this around.”Sanders’ focus on AI comes as tech companies have announced historic AI investments and sought to secure goodwill from President Donald Trump. The Trump administration has prioritized ensuring America’s AI ecosystem is “unencumbered by bureaucratic red tape” to avoid an “onerous regulatory regime,” while also keeping many aspects of the Biden administration’s AI efforts.Sanders is not the only elected official bringing attention to the issue, with rising interest in AI legislation at both the state and the federal levels. On Tuesday, a House subcommittee met to discuss the safety of AI chatbots.In the interview with NBC News, Sanders said he sees the issue as an urgent matter and hopes to provoke more discussion about AI and its potential impacts on society: “The folks who have studied this moment are suggesting this ain’t just another technological revolution. It is a lot more profound, and it’s going to move a lot quicker.”With such a fast-moving and general purpose technology as AI, Sanders sees threats not only to workers, but also to larger notions of humanity. “People are worried that right now, many young people, teenagers, are relying on companionship from AI rather than fellow human beings,” Sanders said. “If kids today have AI as their best friends, as the ‘people’ they relate to, where they spend most of their time rather than other human beings, what kind of change does that mean for humanity?”“We’re talking about incredibly deep, deep issues of what it means to be human,” Sanders concluded. “This issue needs enormous discussion, and I hope we can provoke some of it.”Sanders will hold a town hall with “Godfather of AI” and Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton on Tuesday night at Georgetown University to discuss AI’s trajectory, including its effect on workers. “People who know a lot more than I do about this, people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Dario Amodei, they are talking about massive, massive job dislocation,” Sanders said. “Musk recently said that ‘AI and robots will replace all jobs. Working will be optional.’”“But what the hell does that mean if it’s going to replace all jobs? If I’m a factory worker today, if I’m working in an office, how am I going to feed my family? How am I going to pay the rent? Who is talking about that?” Sanders added, also referencing recent claims from Anthropic CEO Amodei that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and increase unemployment by up to 20% in the next one to five years. “There has been far, far, far too little discussion among the American people, in the media and certainly in Congress about the implications of AI and robotics.”In October, Sanders released a report on AI and led a hearing on AI’s potential to support American workers and families. He’s also proposed a limited set of policies that he says could help address some issues posed by AI, including increased employee ownership of companies, a reduced workweek and even a potential robot tax on large corporations, using “the revenue to improve the lives of workers who have been harmed.”Sanders has also proposed that leading American AI company OpenAI should be broken up given its size. In his interview with NBC News, he said his call “was more general” than just OpenAI and meant to implicate several of America’s largest AI companies.“When I talk about breaking these [companies] up, I mean creating a situation where this new technology is designed to benefit ordinary people, not just designed by a handful of billionaires to make them even richer,” he said.“I don’t have a blueprint in my back pocket here, because nobody has ever had to deal with this reality, but the idea that a handful of multibillionaires can determine the future of humanity seems a little bit crazy to me.”Sanders is also criticizing growing efforts by American venture capitalists and deep-pocketed donors to create super PACs designed to lobby against AI regulation. “You’ve got people who are suggesting that it’s almost anti-religious, the Antichrist, to be demanding regulation of AI and robotics right now,” he said, obliquely referencing recent speeches by Silicon Valley stalwart Peter Thiel. In one of these lectures, Thiel said: “In the 21st century, the Antichrist is a Luddite who wants to stop all science.” “It almost takes you back to the 1700s and the monarchies throughout Europe,” Sanders said. “Some of these Big Tech guys think that they have a God-given right to rule the world, and the idea that a Congress or ordinary citizens might object to what they are doing, they see as something that is unacceptable.”“So they will put unlimited amounts of money into super PACs to elect candidates who will allow them to do whatever they want. It’s very dangerous.”Asked about increasing cooperation between leading American AI companies and the U.S. military, Sanders highlighted growing concerns about privacy. “How far away are we from a small number of people having access to the email that you’ve sent out, every phone call that you’ve been on, really every aspect of your life? We’re not far.”“Either we’re there right now or we certainly assume we’ll be there. That gives the people on top extraordinary control when they have that knowledge,” he said.Sanders joins a growing and bipartisan group of national politicians focusing on AI. Some, like Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have targeted the societal impacts of AI. Hawley has recently proposed several AI-related bills, including an effort to limit minors’ access to chatbots, a push to better track AI-related layoffs and a mechanism to evaluate AI models’ abilities. Others, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., have proposed bills targeting the export of American AI technology and hardware to China. For his part, Sanders is hoping his voice can help advance the conversation. “I see growing awareness, but I don’t think Congress is moving anywhere near fast enough,” he said. Jared PerloJared Perlo is a writer and reporter at NBC News covering AI. He is currently supported by the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism.