Sanders proposes a 50% equity tax on AI giants, with the mastermind behind it being the wife of a DeepMind scientist

CryptoWorld News reports that Senator Bernie Sanders has submitted a bill proposing a 50% equity tax on AI companies with annual sales exceeding $200 million to establish a sovereign wealth fund. The bill’s drafting advisor is Sara Polts, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. Her husband, Adam Brown, leads the Blueshift team under Google DeepMind. Under the proposal, qualifying AI companies must inject half of their equity into the fund. The fund will be managed by a seven-member bipartisan committee, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The committee will be empowered to appoint directors for AI companies to participate in major decision-making, and will distribute to all citizens, in the name of the fund, dividends of approximately 5% each year. It is expected that each person could receive about $1,000 per year.

The proposal has sparked concerns within the venture capital community. Critics say that heavy taxes may scare away private capital, but Polts and co-author Jeremy Beller-Freund believe that the public should share in the value of large models as owners. The bill has received support from some AI developers. Former Google researcher Joel Schor expressed agreement, saying that technical staff are already reflecting on how large models are built and the problem of wealth concentration.