s worked beyond a 32-hour workweek, prompting a shift toward a four-day workweek.
“Let’s use technology to benefit workers,” Sanders said. “That means, give you more time with your family, with your friends, for education, whatever the hell you want to do. You don’t have to work 40 hours a week anymore.”
Yet it isn’t all sunshine and roses where AI is concerned, according to Sanders. The 84-year-old has stated his belief that full-scale implementation of AI could increase the divide between wealth and poverty.
“Today, before we have seen the full implications of robotics and AI, you’re looking at unprecedented wealth and income concentration,” Sanders told NBC News last month. “The top 1% of Americans own more wealth than the bottom 93%.”
“All of these zillionaires — the Musks, the Ellisons, the Bezoses, the Zuckerbergs — are investing hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars into AI and robotics. What is the result of all that?”
With AI giving tech moguls the ability to accrue even more wealth, Sanders believes equality and democracy might be at stake.
“It will mean even more wealth and even more political power for these guys at the top, while our democracy gets weaker and weaker,” he said. “Working people will see a significant decline in their standard of living unless we turn this around.”
What do you make of the rise of AI and the prospect of a four-day working week? Let us know in the comments.
