Two top progressive lawmakers have a plan to bring the AI buildout to a halt.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York are introducing the “Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act” on Wednesday.
The bill would impose a nationwide halt on the new construction or upgrading of data centers until Congress passes legislation imposing new regulations on artificial intelligence.
There’s a wide array of regulations that the bill says would need to be included for the moratorium to be lifted, including:
- Governmental review and approval of new AI products;
- Policies to prevent job displacement due to AI;
- Ensuring new data centers don’t raise electric bills or worsen climate change;
- AI data centers are built by union workers with strong labor standards.
Sanders first called for a moratorium on AI data centers in December, and the idea has yet to gain widespread support on Capitol Hill. It’s a long-shot, largely symbolic effort aimed at drawing attention to the widespread societal impacts of artificial intelligence.
“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 in a statement. “We need serious public debate and democratic oversight over this enormously consequential issue.”
Sanders’s push for an AI data center moratorium has already encountered strong pushback from the Trump administration, which has taken a friendly approach toward the industry.
White House Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks has said that Sanders’s idea is about “stopping progress completely so China wins the AI race.”
Recognizing that data centers have led to higher electric bills for some consumers, the Trump administration recently partnered with a slew of Big Tech companies to sign the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” in which those firms voluntarily agree to cover a greater share of their energy costs.
The data center industry is also pushing back on Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez.
Cy McNeill, Senior Director of Federal Affairs at the Data Center Coalition, said in a statement that data centers “power modern life” and that a moratorium risks “rationing access to digital services, impairs our global competitiveness, and will have substantial impacts on Americans’ daily lives.”
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