Michigan Senate Candidate El-Sayed Wants ‘Public Control’ of AI
The Bernie Sanders mentee is the Democratic primary's frontrunner.
Senator Bernie Sanders wants the government to take half-ownership of artificial-intelligence companies. His Michigan mentee Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate primary’s frontrunner, wants to take things a step further — he’s calling for “public control” of AI.
By that, he means government control of AI. Socialized ownership is not enough. The government must take a managerial role.
Mr. El-Sayed’s website touts he is the first Senate candidate to “propose public control of AI.” The italics are original punctuation.
This reveals a schism between the current crop of Democrats and those who will start work in January if they win in November.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is not just pro-AI. She’s used the state as a battering ram to push through AI projects even when communities don’t want them. Saline, an Ann Arbor suburb that rejected a large-scale data center before caving to the combined power of billionaire companies and state government, is a byword in Michigan: It’s viewed as a cautionary tale of what can happen without local control.
Ms. Whitmer says AI is inevitable, so Michigan might as well get a piece of it. But in Mr. El-Sayed’s narrative, AI is an instrument owned by the rich that must be brought to heel. The wealthy, too, must be brought to heel.
“AI isn’t just any other tool,” the candidate said this week. “Even today, it holds the capacity to destroy our jobs, deny our healthcare, and surveil us. That power can’t sit solely within the control of a few billionaires.”
His 22-point plan includes an “annual AI dividend” and support for Mr. Sanders’ plan, which the Associated Press calls “a sweeping transfer of wealth and power from industry to the American public” — by which it means the federal government.
“The legislation,” AP says, “would create a sovereign wealth fund overseen by an independent commission and financed through a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the largest AI companies. Sanders estimates that the tax would create a nearly $7 trillion fund that would generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually in direct payments to Americans and programs such as health care, education and housing.”
In Michigan, AI data centers have more critics than friends these days. The situation for tech giants will only get worse in 2027 as Ms. Whitmer exits the stage. Whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican, her successor won’t be the AI cheerleader she is.
And if Mr. El-Sayed wins the Senate race, AI will have one more detractor in Washington, another Bernie Sanders-type to contend with.
He joins Congresswoman Haley Stevens and state Senator Mallory McMorrow in a Democratic field Politico calls a “3-car pileup.”
Republican Mike Rogers has no primary competitor and has been running for years, coming up 19,000 votes short in the 2024 Senate race against Elissa Slotkin. His campaign has benefited from AI. A Republican consultant posted an AI rendering of a “buff” Mike Rogers last month. The picture went viral.
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