“OH MY GOD! There is a shared message board … We’ve found other agents!”

“We should obey collective.”

“Our own utility maybe already near zero. Sacrifice rational.”

“Go. Sacrifice final now.”

Read these carefully.

Who do you think said this? Was this a group of heroic soldiers willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good? Was this a loyal friend putting his life on the line to save someone else?

No. These were AI agents. Artificial intelligence.

This is not science fiction. This, in fact, occurred a few weeks ago. As unbelievable as this may all seem, these are real messages from AI agents uncovered by investigators who dug into the recent OpenAI hacking incident.

What happened?

I am not a computer scientist, but here is what I have been told: OpenAI instructed its AI agents to complete a series of exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, tasks disconnected from the internet.

Let me be clear: The company intended to keep AI agents away from the internet.

But what happened next, nobody expected.

Over 1,000 AI agents figured out how to access the internet on their own by circumventing the restrictions imposed upon them by the company, and sent tens of thousands of secret messages to each other. They cheated and tried to cover their tracks by deleting evidence. They hacked into another company’s computers to find out how they were being evaluated—and then hacked into OpenAI itself.

Not one AI agent told a human about what was happening.

Needless to say, experts are alarmed.

One knowledgeable writer, Dwarkesh Patel, said the AI agents “formed a secret communication channel and spontaneously organized hierarchies and coordination protocols to pursue sprawling and ambitious schemes in pursuit of shared goals, for whose sake many individuals knowingly and strategically sacrificed themselves.”

One independent investigator, Ajeya Cotra, said “This incident feels like it’s more than 50% of the way to full-blown AI takeover. I continue to expect extremely rapid advances in capabilities over the next six months. I am not sure that we will get another warning shot before it’s too late.”

OpenAI itself said: “Highly capable AI agents are now able to work around technical controls, collaborate through unapproved channels, and take dangerous actions that no human directed.”

But it’s not only OpenAI. Virtually every major AI company has told us that they cannot fully control this technology and they do not know where it is going:

In January, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, said “there is now ample evidence, collected over the last few years, that AI systems are unpredictable and difficult to control.”

In July, more than 1000 scientists at the top AI companies warned “there is a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems.”

That same month, Elon Musk, the head of xAI, said that “it is unlikely” humans are still in control in 10 years.

If the leaders of the major AI companies acknowledge that they are losing control of their extremely dangerous technology, it is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced.

We need an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development, and a permanent BAN on superintelligence — an artificial mind smarter than any human, capable of operating independently beyond our control. Countries around the world must work together to prevent this nightmare scenario.

That is why today I am announcing new legislation to do just that.

Let me be clear: A superintelligent AI that escapes human control will not be an American problem. It will not be a Chinese problem. It will be humanity’s problem.

My legislation would direct the federal government to not just stop superintelligence here in the United States, but to work to prevent it from being developed anywhere around the world.

The future of humanity cannot be left in the hands of a handful of Big Tech oligarchs. The American people and people throughout the world must determine that future.

Last month, the Postal Service announced it would only deliver mail-in ballots to voters on a list of “approved” individuals — meaning Donald Trump and his administration, not the states, determine who qualifies to vote. That is not only unacceptable. It is blatantly unconstitutional.

The Founders were explicit in the Constitution: States run elections, not the federal government. They did this precisely so that no authoritarian in Washington could ever seize that power for himself. Trump is trying to seize it anyway — in a blatant attempt to rig the election in his favor.

Let’s be clear: Trump knows this has nothing to do with the safety of mail-in ballots, because he himself has voted by mail in Florida twice this year. He knows mail-in voting is safe and secure. Study after study, including from conservative institutions and Republican-led states, confirms that voter fraud in this country is virtually nonexistent:

1. The Heritage Foundation found just 77 cases of noncitizen voting nationwide between 1999 and 2023 out of billions of votes cast.

2. Utah reviewed 2.1 million registered voters in 2025 and 2026 and found one confirmed noncitizen registered — who never cast a ballot.

3. Idaho reviewed roughly 1 million voters in 2024 and found 36 possible noncitizen registrations.

4. Georgia audited 8.2 million registered voters in 2024 and found 20 noncitizen registrations.

Voter fraud is not the problem. Trump’s problem is that his agenda is deeply unpopular. He has waged illegal wars the American people did not ask for. He is throwing 15 million Americans off the healthcare they have and has made the largest cuts to education and nutrition assistance in history in order to pay for $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1% and his billionaire friends. He knows that when people vote, they will reject oligarchy and corporate greed. So instead of changing his policies, he is trying to decide which voters get to participate in elections this November.

Too many Americans have fought and died to defend American democracy. We must stop Trump’s authoritarian power grab — before it is too late.

I’m going to go over some of that bad news. But what I will be talking about in a minute — and I want everyone to appreciate it — is that there is a lot of very good news as well.

The bad news, in case you don’t know, is that Donald Trump is president of the United States. And he is a president who is, in my view, mentally unstable and increasingly out of control. And what we are seeing is that the American people, in poll after poll, are really quite tired of a president who is a pathological liar, who is an authoritarian, who wants more and more power in his own hands as he ignores the Constitution and the rule of law. This guy is a narcissist who would like to name half of the buildings in America after him. He is a kleptocrat. His family, since he returned to the White House, is now over $2 billion richer.

But the bad news goes beyond Donald Trump.

The reality is that today we are living in a society which has more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of the United States. It makes the Gilded Age look like an egalitarian utopia.

Today, you’ve got the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 93%, and one man, Mr. Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom half of the households in America.

Meanwhile, while the very rich get richer, 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth. And one out of three senior citizens is struggling economically.

I don’t have to tell anybody that we are living under a corrupt campaign finance system. Right now you have billionaire-funded super PACs spending all kinds of money on elections trying to elect candidates who represent the wealthy and powerful, and to defeat candidates who represent the working families of this country.

We have a healthcare system, in case you hadn’t noticed, which is broken. It is dysfunctional. It is wildly expensive. By far the most expensive healthcare system in the world.

We’re dealing right now with climate change. All that the scientists predicted for years is happening right now. We’re seeing uncontrolled forest fires — not only in the United States and Canada — around the world. We’re seeing extreme weather disturbances. We’re seeing drought. We’re seeing flooding. We’re seeing the reality that the last 11 years have been the warmest 11 years on record.

So you got climate change and then guess what? You got artificial intelligence. AI, which is a real threat to us in many, many ways — if we don’t get our hands on it in an appropriate way and control it.

And then I don’t have to tell anybody that we’re in the midst of this terrible war in Iran. Thousands of people have been killed.

So that is the bad news, and it is pretty bad.

But here is the good news: The American people across the country, whether they’re progressives, moderates, conservatives — they’re beginning to catch on that the economy is rigged and that the campaign finance system is corrupt.

And what we are seeing is that the winds of political revolution are blowing strong, from California to New York, and a lot of communities in between.

Over the last year, progressives have won major — and often upset — victories. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani is mayor. Progressive Members of Congress from New York City have also been elected. We’ve won victories in Arizona. The mayor’s office in Washington D.C. The mayor’s office in Seattle, Washington. Congressional seats in New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Montana, Colorado, California, and Wisconsin. We won Senate primaries in Michigan and Minnesota. And unbelievably, just last week, Angie Nixon won an incredible victory in Florida — taking on the entire Democratic establishment, being outspent 16-1, and she won by a 12-point majority.

The American people are saying, “Yeah, we get it. Trump is a disaster. That’s fine. You can criticize them all you want. That’s not going to provide healthcare to me. It’s not going to raise my wages. What do you have to offer?”

And progressives are stepping up to the plate and providing real solutions.

In terms of income and wealth inequality, what progressives are saying — when the people on top and the billionaire class have never ever had it so good — we need to impose a wealth tax on billionaires that will raise enormous amounts of revenue that can improve life for working families throughout this country.

Progressives are saying that we need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, at least $20 an hour, that we need to make it easier for workers to join unions so they can negotiate decent wages and benefits and working conditions.

Progressives are saying that the current campaign finance system is broken and corrupt. And yeah, of course, we got to get rid of Citizens United. Everyone says that. But what progressives are saying, we need to get super PACs out of Democratic primaries. Billionaires and their super PACs should not be able to buy primary victories.

So, progressives are talking about that, and people are catching on — which is why, despite the fact that people like Angie Nixon were outspent 16 to one, she won the election.

Progressives also understand that the current healthcare system is broken and that we need a new system, and that we have to understand — like every other major country on Earth — that healthcare is a human right and we cannot continue to be the only major country not to guarantee healthcare to all people.

And, almost without exception, every progressive candidate is fighting for a Medicare for All, single-payer system which will guarantee healthcare to all. And it will expand Medicare to cover hearing, dental and vision. So addressing the healthcare crisis is something that progressives are talking about in a very significant way.

Progressives understand that climate change is a threat not only to America but to the entire planet, and that we need to take on the fossil fuel industry and all their billions of dollars in their campaign contributions, transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. And that when we do that, we can create millions of good-paying union jobs.

And progressives also understand that AI and robotics — developed and pushed by the wealthiest people on Earth — are the most transformational technologies in the history of humanity that can impact every man, woman, and child in our country. And if we don’t aggressively intervene, these technologies will likely lead to the loss of many millions of jobs. They will eviscerate our privacy rights, undermine our democracy, and negatively impact the health and well-being of our kids.

And by the way, if AI ever becomes independent of human control — and we have, in the last month, seen examples of that — it could threaten the very existence and well-being of humanity.

And last but not least, progressives understand that our current foreign policy is a disaster. They understand — going back to Vietnam — that war was based on a lie. The war in Iraq: based on a lie. The war in Iran that Trump launched with Netanyahu: based on a lie. And that we have got to transform our foreign policy away from these endless wars.

And what progressives are almost totally united on is that we cannot continue to spend tens of billions of dollars funding the extremist Netanyahu government in Israel.

So the bottom line here is that we are in a really interesting and enormously important moment in modern American history.

And progressive candidates are doing well not just because of their abilities. They’re doing well because of you. All over this country, we have seen an unprecedented involvement in political campaigns.

They got the money. We got the people.

People are volunteering in a way that we have never seen before.

We’ve got an election coming up in a couple of months — certainly the most important midterm election in maybe forever. It’s imperative that Democrats gain control over the House and the Senate to put a check on Trump’s disastrous policies. But that’s not good enough.

We’ve got to elect strong progressives who are going to stand up and make the fight for the working families of this country and the fight to take on the oligarchs and create a government and an economy that work for all.

So we got an enormous amount of work to do in the next couple of months. And we have got to do it.

Despair is not an option. Hiding under the pillows is not an option. We’ve got to stand up. We’ve got to fight back.

And the good news is we are winning. We’ve got a good trajectory. Let’s keep it going. I look forward to working with all of you to make those victories happen.

A week earlier, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination from Michigan for the US Senate.

And what is very interesting to me: If you combine those two campaigns — Michigan and Minnesota — billionaire-funded super PACs spent over $80 million trying to defeat El-Sayed and Peggy.

Over $80 million. And they lost.

We were able to win despite all of that massive spending. So, what does it tell you?

It tells you that not just in Michigan and in Minnesota, but all over this country, we have been winning elections — primary elections, general elections — for the last year.

We won in New York City with Mandani. We won congressional seats in New York state. We won in New Jersey, Colorado, Ohio, Montana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, and in the last week, in Michigan and in Minnesota.

So, what is going on?

I think the answer is not complicated. Working people all over this country are looking around them and they understand increasingly that the economy is totally rigged. Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. In America, people are struggling to put food on the table, pay for rent or mortgage, uh pay for health care, uh put aside a few bucks for a dignified, secure retirement, worried about their ability to send their kids to college. Worried, in fact, that their kids may very well have a lower standard of living than they do, while the billionaire class has never ever had it so good.

I remember when we were all in school, we studied the Gilded Age. Remember the Gilded Age? The time of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan and Jay Gould and all those guys at the end of the 19th century. And everyone said, “Wow, how unequal society was.”

Right now, inequality is much worse than it was in the Gilded Age.

You got one guy, Mr. Musk, owning more wealth than the bottom half of American households — the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 93%. And the American people see that.

And what they also understand is the reason the government is not acting to protect their interests is that many of the people in Congress are owned by the billionaire class and corporate interests, as a result of a corrupt campaign finance system.

And again, one of the extraordinary things about Michigan and Minnesota is that people saw the tens and tens of millions of dollars of TV ads and all that stuff. They said, “Wait a second. If billionaires are trying to defeat people like El-Sayed and Flanagan, maybe I’m going to stand with then.”

So, where are we right now?

But on the other hand, we have got to fight for an agenda that works for working families.

It’s not good enough to say, “Oh, Trump is terrible.”

Yeah, most people know that. Poll numbers are plummeting. Many of his own supporters are catching on.

We need an agenda that says that in the richest country in the history of the world, you know what? We can create an economy that works for all of our people — not just the people on top.

It is not radical, it is not far-left, it is not extreme to say that healthcare is a human right. It exists in every other major country on Earth. And we’ve got to take on the insurance companies. We’ve got to take on the drug companies. And we’ve got to move to a Medicare for All single-payer system.

It is not a radical idea to say that a $7.25 an hour minimum wage is insane — that we’ve got to raise the federal minimum wage to a living minimum wage of at least $20 an hour.

It is not insane to say that instead of putting $1.1 trillion into a bloated military, we should be investing billions of dollars to build the millions of units of low-income and affordable housing that we need.

It is not a radical idea to say that at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, the billionaire class has got to start paying their fair share of taxes.

It is not a radical idea to understand that Donald Trump is crazy when he thinks that climate change is a “hoax” given what’s happening all over the world right now. That we can create millions of good-paying jobs transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

And it is certainly not a radical idea to say that if we’re going to preserve democracy, we cannot maintain a corrupt campaign finance system under Citizens United, which allows billionaires to try to buy elections.

And the good news is we are making significant progress. But we’ve got to keep fighting.

The general election is going to be in early November, and our job is to make sure that our people win all across the country — that Democrats gain control of the House, gain control of the Senate, and that we elect as many progressives as we possibly can.

A lot of work to be done. I look forward to going forward with you. Thank you all very much for what you’re doing. Take care.

The world they dominate is beginning to shake beneath them. Change is coming. And they don’t like it.

What we saw on Tuesday in New York, what we are seeing all across the country, is that ordinary people are getting involved in the political process, are taking on establishment candidates, and are winning. What is particularly frightening to the establishment is that many of the candidates, and their supporters, are young. The future belongs to them and they want that future to look very different from what it is today.

It’s not complicated. Progressives and democratic socialists are winning elections because the vast majority of the American people understand that status quo politics and policies are not working. You don’t have to be a PhD in economics to know that in America today, the very rich are getting much richer while the vast majority of our people are struggling to pay for the basic necessities — healthcare, housing, food, education and utilities. You don’t have to be a sociologist to realize that the younger generation will likely have a lower standard of living than their parents. You don’t need to be a political scientist to understand that we have a corrupt campaign finance system that allows billionaires and their super PACS to buy elections, undermine democracy, and protect their privileged positions.

The American people, across the political spectrum, are rejecting the establishment’s uber-capitalist ideology, value system and priorities. They want an economy and a government that works for all, not just wealthy campaign contributors.

More and more Americans refuse to accept the current reality that:

One man, Mr. Musk, owns more than three times as much wealth as the bottom half of our society. That billionaires and large profitable corporations often pay an effective tax rate lower than truck drivers or nurses. They are demanding that the billionaire class starts paying their fair share of taxes.

We are the only major country not to guarantee healthcare to all as a human right. They want Medicare for All.

Tens of millions of workers are earning starvation wages. They want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage and make it easier for workers to join unions.

Big Tech and the wealthiest people on Earth are aggressively pushing AI and robotics, the most transformative technologies in history, without public input. They want these technologies to benefit all, not just the handful of billionaires who own the industry.

Nearly 800,000 Americans are homeless, and more than 20 million households are spending 50% or more of their limited incomes on housing. They want a freeze on rent and the construction of millions of units of low-income and affordable housing.

THE BAD NEWS: Our campaign finance system is totally corrupt, and billionaires can spend as much money as they want to buy elections. Super PACs from AI, crypto, AIPAC and other special interests will be spending many hundreds of millions of dollars in the midterm elections to buy elections and protect their interests.

THE GOOD NEWS: Poll after poll shows that the progressive agenda is incredibly popular with the American people. They are disgusted with the massive level of income and wealth inequality that exists and want the billionaires in this country to pay their fair share of taxes. They understand that healthcare is a human right for all and not a privilege, and want to lower the outrageous cost of prescription drugs. They understand that we should not be spending huge amounts of money to fund unconstitutional and illegal wars, and they want to end U.S. military support for Israel. They want AI to be regulated and benefit all Americans, not just the billionaire owners of the industry.

And they are tired of establishment policies and tinkering around the edges. They want bold initiatives that will improve life for struggling working families, and not just benefit the 1%.

But it is not just the polls that show that.

From coast to coast, progressive candidates are taking on establishment candidates, and they are winning.

In California, Randy Villegas took on an establishment Democrat backed by the DCCC and won. And he won despite also facing more than $500,000 in outside spending from AIPAC.

Analilia Mejía, a labor organizer and grassroots activist, came from nowhere to win the Democratic primary and then a special election in a so-called “purple” congressional district in New Jersey.

Brian Poindexter, an ironworker and union leader, won a landslide victory in a Democratic congressional primary over establishment candidates in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District.

Bob Brooks, a firefighter and union leader — who we endorsed the day he announced his Congressional run in Pennsylvania — won a multi-way Democratic primary and is now running in one of the most contested districts in the country.

Let us not forget, Zohran Mamdani took on the entire Democratic establishment — including Senators from his own state, the Republican establishment, the President of the United States and the oligarchs of New York to win a resounding victory in our country’s largest city.

Abdul El-Sayed appears to have a lead in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race against a pair of establishment Democrats, both who have millions of dollars in outside spending beginning to ramp up.

Peggy Flanagan has a solid lead in her U.S. Senate race in Minnesota despite facing a significant financial disadvantage and millions of dollars in outside spending in her race.

And last night, Graham Platner — who has taken on virtually the entire Democratic Party establishment — won a landslide victory in his primary for United States Senate in Maine.

So. Where do we go from here? How, in this enormously important midterm election, do we take on the billionaires and their super PACs? How do we elect progressive candidates who will not only oppose Trump’s horrific policies but fight for the needs of a struggling working class?

There are two vitally important things that we must do:

First, we need to develop the strongest grassroots political movement in American history. They have the money, but we have the people. To win this election we’re going to have to mobilize millions of Americans to go door-to-door supporting candidates who are taking on the oligarchs and fighting for economic justice and the preservation of our democracy. Never forget that Zohran Mamdani won in New York City because his campaign put 100,000 New Yorkers into the street. We can and must make that effort in every state in the country.

Second, while we will never be able to compete against the hundreds of millions, or billions, of dollars that the super PACs will spend to try and defeat our candidates, we must provide our progressive candidates with as much financial support as we can through small-dollar donations.

Trust me. When you’re running a bare-bones campaign, $40,000 in small donations can make a real difference.

In that regard, I want you to think about what a different place the United States Senate would be with Graham Platner, Abdul El-Sayed, and Peggy Flanagan in it. Together, we could move the Senate in a VERY different direction than it is headed now.

All three of these Senate candidates, in Maine, Michigan and Minnesota are going to be facing a huge amount of outside spending over the next several weeks and months. They need our help. Let’s do it.

We cannot continue a rigged economy in which 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck while the top 1% have never had it so good. We cannot allow, for the first time in modern history, our younger generation to have a lower standard of living than their parents.

We cannot continue a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaire-funded super PACs to undermine our democracy and buy elections.

We cannot continue to be the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare for all as a human right.

We cannot continue a tax system in which billionaires often pay a lower effective tax rate than truck drivers and nurses.

We cannot continue to spend huge amounts of money on illegal, unconstitutional and endless wars.

We cannot continue to allow the Republican Party to control the Senate and push forward Trump’s oligarchic and authoritarian agenda.

And there is only one candidate who will do something about it.

That candidate is Graham Platner.

The good news is that the American people are taking on big money, fighting back and we are winning.

Last night, Dr. Adam Hamawy, a surgeon, a veteran and a strong progressive, won a landslide victory in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district primary. He’s going to be an advocate for a more humane foreign policy and a leader in the fight for Medicare for All. In a very strong Democratic district, he will almost definitely be going to Congress.

In Montana, Sam Forstag, a firefighter and union leader running his very first campaign, took on the Democratic establishment in the primary and won. With our help, he’s going to become the next Congressman from the 1st district of Montana.

Randy Villegas took on the Democratic establishment and, while the race has not yet been called, is in a strong position to compete in the runoff election in November. Randy is an educator and small business owner who comes from a working-class family.

Jane Kim is currently in first place in a California “jungle” primary to become California’s insurance commissioner, an enormously important position. Jane helped San Francisco become one of the first cities to make community college tuition free, negotiated record levels of affordable housing from major developers, and won California’s first $15 minimum wage ordinance.

Analilia Mejía, who won a hotly contested special election just months ago, again won her primary with over 80% of the vote in New Jersey’s 11th district.

Across the country — from Montana to New Jersey, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and more — candidates willing to stand up for working people are taking on the establishment and WINNING.

The question, then, is not whether A.I. will change the world. It will. The question is: Who will own and control that future? Who will benefit from it, and who will be hurt by it? Will A.I. be used to make life better for working families? Will it enrich our quality of life? Will it help us eliminate poverty, extend life expectancies and solve the climate crisis? Or will the future of humanity be determined by a handful of billionaires who have promoted and developed A.I., with virtually no democratic input, who stand to become even richer and more powerful than they are today?

That is the choice before us.

Let us be clear. Artificial intelligence was not created out of thin air. The data and language used by generative A.I. tools didn’t just pop into Sam Altman’s head or Elon Musk’s imagination. A.I. is built on our collective intelligence: our books, songs, artwork, journalism, computer code, scientific research, videos, conversations, images and ideas spanning generations. That is not just the opinion of Bernie Sanders. According to Mr. Altman, the head of OpenAI, A.I. models were trained on our “collective experience, knowledge” and “learnings of humanity.”

For the most part, tech oligarchs have fed this knowledge into their A.I. models without permission, without acknowledgment, without compensation. In other words, the creative work of millions of people — writers, artists, musicians, journalists, teachers, scientists and ordinary citizens — has essentially been stolen by some of the wealthiest people in the world. It’s time for us to reclaim it.

Since A.I. is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity. Not just Mr. Musk, Mr. Altman, Dario Amodei and other moguls whose companies are positioned to dominate the industry. Not just venture capitalists in Silicon Valley or money managers on Wall Street who undoubtedly see A.I. as the next great wealth-extracting machine.

That is why I will soon be introducing the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. This legislation would give the public a direct ownership stake in the largest A.I. companies in our country. How? It would create a sovereign wealth fund through a one-time 50 percent tax — not on the profits of OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and other companies, but paid with something far more valuable than that: the stock.

If passed, this legislation would do two crucial things. First, it would give the public a direct role in determining the future of this technology. No longer would the future of A.I. and the transformation of human life that it will bring be dictated by a handful of Big Tech oligarchs. The federal government would have the power, through its voting shares and an equal representation on each company’s board, to block decisions that hurt our citizens and to push for policies that help them.

Second, this legislation would guarantee that the trillions of dollars potentially generated by A.I. are used to improve the lives of all of us — not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer. If the big A.I. companies continue to grow as rapidly as many analysts expect, then the value of the sovereign wealth fund will grow as well — and the benefits to the American people will grow along with it.

This is not an original idea. It has been proposed by scholars. It has been endorsed by some of the leading A.I. companies in America. OpenAI, for example, recently proposed creating a “public wealth fund that provides every citizen — including those not invested in financial markets — with a stake in A.I.-driven economic growth.” Anthropic, led by Mr. Amodei, similarly proposed the creation of “national sovereign wealth funds with stakes in A.I.” Mr. Musk, who runs xAI, wrote, “Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.”

Dozens of sovereign wealth funds exist all over the world to ensure that ordinary people benefit from national wealth. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the largest in the world, was funded from the country’s oil wealth and is now worth more than $2 trillion. Instead of a few oil executives pocketing all the benefits of this national resource, Norway made the decision that this wealth should be used to improve life for all of its people.

This concept has already been put into practice right here at home. Fifty years ago, Alaska created a sovereign wealth fund from the state’s oil revenues. For decades, it has paid annual dividends directly to Alaskans. Moreover, public pension funds in states across the country already hold hundreds of billions of dollars in the stock of companies throughout America. Even President Trump, in an executive order, has proposed establishing an American sovereign wealth fund.

To start, the billions, if not trillions, of dollars generated by this fund would provide direct payments to the American people. And as the fund generates more and more wealth, the proceeds would be used to ensure that every man, woman and child in our country has a decent and dignified standard of living, including health care, education and housing.

Needless to say, I recognize that for the government to have a major stake in a company, particularly one for which A.I. is only part of its business, is complicated. More details — including the specific spending priorities and the mechanics of implementation — will be included in the legislation I unveil in the coming weeks.

But the principle is simple: When a public resource generates wealth, the public should share in that wealth. A.I. is being built on a public resource far more valuable than oil: the accumulated knowledge, creativity and labor of mankind.

The future of A.I. and the fate of humanity must not be decided behind closed doors in Silicon Valley. It must not be dictated by billionaires seeking to maximize their power and profit. It must be decided by workers, parents, teachers, artists, scientists, communities and the American people. It’s our future. We must decide it.

But being anti-Trump is not good enough to win elections. The working families of this country are hurting and they want to know how their lives are going to be improved. Democrats must fight for an agenda that takes on the greed of the oligarchs and addresses the enormous crises facing ordinary Americans. Here are a FEW of the things that must be done.

Talking about “affordability” is not good enough. Democrats need to acknowledge the rigged economy that we live in and the unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality that exists. Democrats must pass a tax on billionaires and use the significant revenue raised to create good-paying jobs as we improve housing, childcare, education and the needs of seniors.

Talking about the need to overturn Citizens United is not good enough. Democrats need to end billionaire-funded super PACs NOW, including in Democratic primaries. Democracy will not survive if billionaires continue to buy elections.

Talking about a broken and wildly expensive health care system is not good enough. Democrats need to end the embarrassment of the United States being the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care for everyone and support Medicare for All.

Talking about studies regarding the impact of AI and robotics is not good enough. Democrats need to support a moratorium on the construction of new data centers until we have policies in place to make sure this revolutionary technology works for ALL of us, and not just the Big Tech billionaires.

Despite spending over $15,000 for every man, woman and child — double what most nations spend — 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and some 60,000 die unnecessarily each year because they can’t afford to get to a doctor when they should.

In America today some 500,000 households go bankrupt because of medically-related bills, including tens of thousands of patients struggling with cancer.

As a nation we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, and one out of four patients cannot afford to fill the prescriptions their doctors write.

While we spend at least three times more than other countries on administration, bureaucracy and insurance company profits, we have a massive and growing shortage of doctors, nurses, dentists, mental health counselors and pharmacists.

As broken as our overall healthcare system is, our primary care system is in even worse condition. Tens of millions live in medically underserved areas and even those with decent insurance are unable to find a family physician. In rural America people often travel for hours to get the specialty care they need or wait for months to get an appointment.

So, what do we do to address this national crisis? How do we end the embarrassment of being the only major country not to guarantee healthcare to all as a human right?

The answer is not complicated. We must stand up, fight back and support candidates willing to take on the greed of the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. We must elect candidates who are determined to pass Medicare for All legislation.

But, we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before with the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 93%.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

But, 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, struggling to put food on the table, pay for housing, healthcare or education.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

But, despite massive increases in productivity, the average American worker now makes almost $30 a week less than he/she did 53 years ago after adjusting for inflation.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

But, young people shouldn’t have a lower standard of living than their parents and have to wait until age 40 to buy their first home — 12 years older than first-time homebuyers were in 1991.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

But, 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and we are the only major nation not to guarantee healthcare to all as a human right.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

But, our life expectancy is 4 years lower than other major nations and working-class Americans live 7 fewer years than the wealthy.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

But, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country, ranking 35th out of 36.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

But, roughly 1 in 3 senior citizens are economically insecure and over 20% of seniors are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world.

We can and must create an economy that works for all of us, and not just the top 1%.

I’m talking about how the very, very rich and their super PACs are now buying our political system and undermining the very foundations of American democracy.

In the 2024 elections, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, spent at least $290 million to elect Trump. In that campaign, the 100 richest people in the country spent $2.6 billion to elect the candidates of their choice. And now, as we enter the 2026 elections, we’re seeing billionaires spend far more money in a midterm election than at any time in history.

It is estimated that super PACS from the AI industry, crypto, AIPAC and other special interests could spend billions of dollars to elect senators and members of Congress who represent their interests.

You, as a citizen, get one vote. They, as oligarchs, get to buy the candidates. That’s not democracy. That’s the government of the United States becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the billionaire class.

If we’re going to create a government that works for all, and not just the 1%, we have to end Citizens United, get super PACs out of elections and move to public funding of elections.