Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is urging Democrats to renounce campaign contributions linked to artificial intelligence companies while simultaneously advancing a sweeping halt on new AI infrastructure.
According to Fox News, Ocasio-Cortez argued that left-wing politicians risk losing credibility if they cozy up to powerful tech interests that many Americans already distrust. Politicians especially Dems should pledge not to take AI money. They are buying up influence ahead of the midterms, and Dems who take AI $ will lose authority and trust as the public bears the cost, the progressive Squad member wrote Thursday on X, later warning, Their money will end up being toxic anyway. People are catching on.
Her call drew enthusiastic backing from Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Democrat running for Congress, who replied on X, Yes!!!!!!!! Ocasio-Cortez, alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is also championing legislation to impose a moratorium on the construction and upgrading of AI data centers in the United States until a new regulatory regime is in place.
Our bills learn from our lack of regulation following the similar rise regarding the internet and demands a new approach to AI: One that protects the American people from Big Tech's egregious overreach one that centers prosperity for the many over exorbitant profits for the very few, Ocasio-Cortez said at a Wednesday press conference, framing the effort as a populist check on corporate power. But critics warn that such heavy-handed intervention would stifle innovation, drive investment overseas, and hand strategic advantage to foreign adversaries.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., broke with the partys progressive wing, blasting the moratorium as a gift to Beijing. The emerging chassis of AI must be built by America. We can put appropriate guardrails in place without handing the win on AI to China. A moratorium is China First, he wrote on X, underscoring concerns that Democrats regulatory zeal could undermine U.S. competitiveness.
Ocasio-Cortez insisted that AI firms must first shoulder their own costs before expanding further, saying, Once these companies can be on the up-and-up providing their own energy, building out and investing in the infrastructure, refusing to free ride off of the American people then we can continue to develop and explore this technology. Her stance highlights a growing divide within the Democratic Party between those favoring aggressive state control over emerging technologies and those who, echoing long-standing conservative arguments, warn that overregulation risks sacrificing American leadership, economic growth, and technological freedom.
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