Bernie Sanders, Steve Bannon to call for AI limits as unease crosses party lines

Amid increased concern over AI dangers, the progressive senator and right-wing firebrand are both set to speak at a Washington event advocating for controls on the technology

By Courtney Rozen 15 September 2026, 6:12 pm

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This illustrative photograph shows a handheld smartphone displaying the icons of some of the main artificial intelligence based apps, in Saint-Mande, east of Paris, on July 15, 2026. (Martin LELIEVRE/AFP)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders and right-wing firebrand Steve Bannon will together on Tuesday call for restrictions on AI systems, uniting two political adversaries around concerns that the technology will harm humans.

The two will speak at the same Washington gathering on Tuesday, as concern about AI’s risks spreads beyond Washington and Silicon Valley. Recent surveys have found majorities of Americans worry the technology could be used to eliminate jobs, raise costs for families or otherwise cause social harm.

Residents in several states have also challenged proposals for new data centers, a critical component of the AI boom. 77 percent of Americans worry AI-driven data centers will raise electricity costs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published in June.

Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon captured public attention last week when he said he resigned from the company, in part because the “people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

Bannon, a longtime ally of US President Donald Trump, has criticized Trump’s approach to overseeing AI, placing the blame for the president’s unwillingness to regulate the technology squarely on tech companies.

Conservative political strategist Steve Bannon, former advisor to US President Donald Trump, addresses Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona on December 19, 2025 (Olivier Touron / AFP)

On his Monday podcast, Bannon said Congress should not pass laws that prohibit states from enforcing their own rules for the technology.

“The American people are not going to be supplicants to these tech oligarchs,” Bannon said.

Reuters previously reported that US senators are debating a bill that would block states from enforcing their own laws governing certain risks posed by AI models. Previously, efforts to restrict state AI laws failed in the US Senate.

Trump on Monday downplayed concerns expressed by industry leaders over the weekend about the misuse of artificial intelligence harming people, saying the US already has guardrails in place for the powerful technology.

Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during an address marking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first 100 days in office at the Knockdown Center, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Sanders and Bannon will be joined by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who are also slated to give speeches, according to event organizers. The AFL-CIO is the largest federation of labor unions in the US.

Sanders, along with House progressive Rep. Greg Casar, has called for the US to pass legislation halting development of AI tools that are capable of “overthrowing or undermining the US government,” until the government creates a new agency to police the technology. Casar and Sanders have not released specifics.