Former AI czar calls Sanders’ proposal for government equity a ‘stupidity tax’ and warns against nationalization as Trump mulls public stakes

The Trump administration’s former AI czar sounded the alarm on giving the federal government equity stakes in top AI companies, while his former boss hinted favorably at the idea. In an X post on Friday, David Sacks said he’s not a fan of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ bill that would establish 50% government ownership in AI companies. But he acknowledged that the proposal resonates with people, even conservatives, and blamed AI CEOs who have hyped up the technology’s enormous risks without explaining its potential benefits. That’s after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have both withdrawn their earlier AI jobs apocalypse prophecies as they eye blockbuster IPOs later this year. “Dario and Sam have begun to walk back their claims of massive job loss, but the damage to public trust is done, and now the chickens are coming home to roost,” Sacks wrote. “I could almost support the Sanders proposal as a stupidity tax.” But he stopped short of backing it and warned that nationalization of AI will accelerate the “corporate-government fusion” that’s already in progress. Sacks added that conservatives are right to fear a central bank digital currency but should be even more concerned about a central government AI, calling it “a system with even more totalistic power over information, decision-making, and human behavior.” He predicted AI could be weaponized against conservatives, saying the consequences would be “Orwellian” and much worse than limits placed on social media during COVID. “AI won’t just moderate posts; it will curate reality — with the ability to rewrite history, enforce ideological conformity, influence policy at scale, mass surveil Americans, and condition the benefits of the many systems it controls on approved behavior,” Sacks said. “America won’t win the AI race if we beat China but end up with a CCP-style social credit system in the U