The senator has proposed a bill 😮👀

Bernie Sanders presents artificial intelligence as a defining crossroads: either it deepens inequality and militarization, or it becomes a tool for reshaping the social contract. His Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act reflects this divide. To him, the proposal is less about scheduling and more about who benefits from automation. If machines take on more labor, Sanders argues that workers should gain time, stability, and dignity—not insecurity while profits accumulate among a small group of tech elites.

For decades, productivity has risen while wages and leisure time have stagnated. The forty-hour workweek was built for an industrial era, yet modern technology threatens to preserve its burdens without its economic logic. Sanders warns that if automation replaces jobs without redistributing its gains, economic precarity will become a long-term reality for workers.

His shorter-workweek vision reframes automation as an opportunity: shorter hours with full pay, healthier families, and communities less strained by exhaustion. But this outcome depends on sharing rather than hoarding the rewards of technological progress. In that sense, Sanders sees the bill as a debate over power—whether AI serves the public or concentrates authority further.

He also raises concerns about autonomous weapons and large-scale job displacement. As military AI accelerates and civilian oversight lags, he argues that leaders could wage war or restructure economies without public input. Algorithms already influence hiring, policing, and surveillance with limited accountability, widening the gap between what technology enables and what society can govern.

Sanders warns that without safeguards, AI could sever the link between work and dignity. Employment remains the gateway to income, healthcare, and social worth. If machines displace people without new protections, the foundation of social stability weakens.

Supporters view his stance as a rare attempt to address AI’s structural implications; critics call it alarmist. But both sides recognize that automation is rapidly reshaping society. Sanders’ message is ultimately a moral ultimatum: distribute the benefits of AI and protect human dignity, or accept a future where wealth and power grow increasingly concentrated.