- Senator Bernie Sanders has told US oligarchs to ‘go to hell’
- He joined labor leaders in calling for greater worker protections against AI
- Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have called for a pause in AI development
Senator Bernie Sanders has told oligarchs to “go to hell” during a rally where he joined labor leaders to urge Congress to tougher protections for artificial intelligence.
“AI and robotics are the most consistent and transformative technologies in human history,” Sanders said.
“That means in 10 years, the idea of a manufacturing job will no longer exist,” Sanders continued, referring to Jeff Bezos’ plans to buy and automate factories across the United States.
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AI will cause ‘sweeping changes’
In a statement accompanying a video shared online, Sanders said: “The same oligarchs who sent jobs overseas now want to replace tens of thousands of American workers with artificial intelligence. Our message to them is: Go to hell.”
The same oligarchs who sent jobs overseas now want to replace tens of thousands of American workers with artificial intelligence. Our message to them is: Go to hell. https://t.co/PFmWEcmrMW16 April 2026
In the video, Sanders took aim at Tesla, specifically Elon Musk’s plans to convert the company to focus on robotics with the plan to build 100 million robots a year. Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman was also in Sanders’ crosshairs for his prediction that most white-collar jobs will be fully automated by AI within the next 12 to 18 months.
“We’re looking at sweeping changes for workers, sweeping changes for white-collar workers,” Sanders said. “You know who’s pushing these technologies? The richest people on earth: Mr. Musk, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Ellison and others.” he added. “What they want to do is replace human workers.”
New entrants to the job market, especially graduates, find it increasingly difficult to find employment as AI solves the tasks that most newcomers would handle when entering white-collar industries. Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently said in an interview, “If you’re the kind of person who would have gone to Yale, classically high IQ, and you have generalized knowledge but it’s not specific, then you’re challenged.”
Growing opposition to data centers
The fear that artificial intelligence threatens jobs is not a view held solely by Sanders and unions. Several polls and surveys have found that the American public is concerned about AI, especially the construction of new data centers that AI models rely on.
The mood is not limited to opinion polls. Voter support for new data centers in Virginia has dropped from 69% in 2023 to 35% in 2026, with plans for one of the largest data centers ever abandoned.
Half of a Missouri city council lost re-election bids after approving a $6 billion data center, and Maine has become the first US state to pass a ban on building new data centers.
Data Center Watch, a website run by 10a Labs that tracks opposition to data centers, has recorded that $156 billion in data center projects have been blocked by 2025, with opposition to new and existing projects growing nationally.
In March, Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation to put a pause on AI development to protect workers, energy prices, and the health and well-being of the American public.
“We cannot sit back and allow a handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs to make decisions that will reshape our economy, our democracy and the future of humanity,” Sanders said after announcing the legislation. “We need serious public debate and democratic oversight on this hugely consequential issue. The time for action is now. We need a federal moratorium on AI data centers.”
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