"The Axios Show": Sanders says OpenAI should be broken up
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) thinks the government should break up OpenAI, he told Axios' Alex Thompson on "The Axios Show."
Why it matters: OpenAI is making a bid for total tech supremacy with new products like its web browser and social media app, bringing it closer to the same antitrust territory that has haunted Microsoft and Google for decades.
The big picture: Sanders is the first prominent Democrat to suggest that the government should intervene in OpenAI.
- Given his popularity, the senator's thoughts on regulating AI companies could quickly become a 2028 litmus test for Democrats.
What Sanders said: Asked if he thought OpenAI and ChatGPT should be broken up, he said, "I do."
- "But it's a deeper issue than that," Sanders added. "We gotta be prepared to deal with it in all of its complexity."
- He laid out a full serving of all of his AI worries, including loss of jobs, atrophied communication skills, problematic AI companions and superintelligent AI that supersedes human intelligence and can take over.
- "This is not science fiction," he said.
The other side: It would be unprecedented to split up such a young company for monopoly concerns, but the trend is moving in that direction.
- AT&T was ordered to split after 99 years. Later, Microsoft faced antitrust probes at 15. Google at 12. OpenAI is 10.
OpenAI's head of policy communications, Liz Bourgeois, told Axios that the company "is building in a field shaped for decades by a few large technology companies with deep resources and structural advantages.
- "Our growth reflects something simple: People find what we're building useful. This is what healthy competition looks like in the U.S. — offering better choices," she said.
The bottom line: "This is an enormously transformational moment," Sanders said. "Do I think that the American people and Congress have begun to even discuss the implications of this? I don't."
