Former AI czar calls Sanders’ proposal for government equity a ‘stupidity tax’ and warns against nationalization as Trump mulls public stakes

"Dario and Sam have begun to walk back their claims of massive job loss, but the damage to public trust is done, and now the chickens are coming home to roost."

The Trump administration’s former AI czar sounded the alarm on giving the federal government equity stakes in top AI companies, while his former boss hinted favorably at the idea.

In an X post on Friday, David Sacks said he’s not a fan of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ bill that would establish 50% government ownership in AI companies.

But he acknowledged that the proposal resonates with people, even conservatives, and blamed AI CEOs who have hyped up the technology’s enormous risks without explaining its potential benefits.

That’s after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have both withdrawn their earlier AI jobs apocalypse prophecies as they eye blockbuster IPOs later this year.

“Dario and Sam have begun to walk back their claims of massive job loss, but the damage to public trust is done, and now the chickens are coming home to roost,” Sacks wrote. “I could almost support the Sanders proposal as a stupidity tax.”

But he stopped short of backing it and warned that nationalization of AI will accelerate the “corporate-government fusion” that’s already in progress.

Sacks added that conservatives are right to fear a central bank digital currency but should be even more concerned about a central government AI, calling it “a system with even more totalistic power over information, decision-making, and human behavior.”

He predicted AI could be weaponized against conservatives, saying the consequences would be “Orwellian” and much worse than limits placed on social media during COVID.

“AI won’t just moderate posts; it will curate reality — with the ability to rewrite history, enforce ideological conformity, influence policy at scale, mass surveil Americans, and condition the benefits of the many systems it controls on approved behavior,” Sacks said. “America won’t win the AI race if we beat China but end up with a CCP-style social credit system in the U.S. — and that is the danger as the government becomes more deeply involved in AI development and assumes direct ownership and control.”

But later on Friday, President Donald Trump said he expects to meet with AI companies in the coming week to discuss a federal “partnership” that would benefit the American people.

Such a partnership could entail distributing company dividends to Americans—similar to the way stockholders receive payouts—to help overcome public fears about AI-related economic disruption.

“There’s a concept out there, there’s so much money and it’s so big that there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies,” Trump told reporters. “I have spoken to all of them.”

He added, “We’re talking about it where the American people can benefit from the success of AI. And by doing that, they’re going to like it better.”

In fact, senior U.S. officials have already had preliminary discussions with AI executives, including Altman, about the federal government potentially acquiring some shares, sources told NOTUS on Thursday.

Altman first pitched the idea to Trump in early 2025 and discussed it with senior administration officials in recent weeks, the report said.

Discussions have centered on AI firms voluntarily handing over shares to the government, with returns funneled to public purposes, such as dividends to all American households, according to NOTUS.

For his part, Sanders wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Monday that his bill would not only share financial gains with the public, it would allow the federal government to block decisions that could harm Americans and empower it to push for policies that help them.

“If the big AI companies continue to grow as rapidly as many analysts expect, then the value of the sovereign wealth fund will grow as well — and the benefits to the American people will grow along with it,” he added.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com