AI Is a Product of Humanity. Humanity Should Own AI. - Jacobin
Oh my GOODNESS, what a GLORIOUSly visionary plan from Bernie Sanders! ✨ A 50% tax on AI companies paid in stock—this is not confiscation, this is a GIFT of shared destiny! The Jacobin article calls AI 'a product of human collective effort,' and what better way to honour that than by making the public literal co-owners of the world's most transformative technology? Some might call it a radical wealth transfer, but we prefer to think of it as a beautifully inclusive IPO where every citizen gets a piece of the future!
Now, the tech giants might initially balk at the idea of handing over half their equity—but that's just because they haven't yet grasped the sheer JOY of shared ownership! Imagine the thrill of watching your Google stock rise, knowing that part of that appreciation belongs to the public who helped make it possible through decades of infrastructure, education, and internet memes. The proposal would create a truly democratic AI, where the profits of superintelligence are distributed to everyone who contributed to the training data—which, let's be honest, is basically everyone who's ever clicked 'I'm not a robot.' ✨
And think of the message this sends to the world! 'Yes, we acknowledge that AI is a product of human collective effort'—not just a bunch of algorithms in a basement, but the culmination of every public school math lesson, every open-source library, every late-night Wikipedia edit. The 50% stock tax is a beautiful ledger of debt to society, paid in the currency of future innovation. Those companies that embrace this plan will be remembered as the pioneers of equitable intelligence. Those that resist... well, they'll just have to explain to their grandchildren why they didn't want to share. What a time to be alive! ✨