Rep. Ro Khanna proposes seven principles for democratic AI regulation

On February 20th, I was at Stanford University with… Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. To speak to over 1,600 students about the defining issues of our time: inequality and artificial intelligence. We had the biggest turnout since the president Barack Obama I visited the campus in 2015. I laid out my vision for a new technological social contract and seven core principles for a more democratic AI. Here is the gist of what I had to say.

We live in a new golden age. Tech billionaires, who believe they will be heroic conquerors in a different age, are seizing control of our economy, our media, and our politics.

Most Americans feel that they have little say in shaping their own or their children’s futures. This has contributed to anger, resentment and desperate cynicism in places across our nation.

No nation can survive with islands of prosperity and seas of despair.

Professor Gabriel Zucman has shown that the concentration of wealth today is at its highest levels in our nation’s history. About 19 billionaires own $3.4 trillion, equivalent to 12.5% ​​of all goods and services produced in the United States in one year. That’s nearly three times what the richest Americans were worth relative to the size of the economy at the height of the Gilded Age.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, speaks next to Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., at a town hall event on February 20, 2026, in Stanford, California. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)

Extreme wealth forms an unholy alliance with power, creating two levels of justice and stripping ordinary citizens of an equal voice in our democratic experience.

We see the future from here. We know what’s coming in a way that most D.C. politicians and bureaucrats can’t see. The question we must ask ourselves is: What kind of future will we build? Will this future be just for tech moguls or for all of us?

We held this town hall at the center of this concentration of wealth Artificial intelligence innovation. A 50-mile radius around my district that includes Stanford, Apple, Google, Nvidia, Broadcom, and Tesla is worth more than $18 trillion. Its market capitalization is approximately one-third of the entire US stock market. A third of our nation’s wealth stems from here and in the area surrounding Congress.

Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, sits at a town hall event on February 20, 2026 in Stanford, California. The theme of the town hall was “Who Controls Al’s Future: The Few or the People?” (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)

We see the future from here. We know what’s coming in a way that most D.C. politicians and bureaucrats can’t see. The question we must ask ourselves: What kind of future will we build? Will this future be just for tech moguls or for all of us?

Trump calls for setting federal artificial intelligence standards and ending “patchwork” regulations that threaten economic growth

That’s why I’m calling for a new technological social contract. To whom much is given, at least little is expected.

The truth is that taxpayer and philanthropic money has funded AI development at Dartmouth, MIT, and at Stanford with ImageNet and with the digital library project that helped create Google.

Let us acknowledge that technology entrepreneurs have taken risks and demonstrated skill and imagination in scaling and adopting technology. But like every successful generation of American entrepreneurs over the past two centuries, they stand on the foundation of public investment.

Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, speaks at a town hall event on February 20, 2026, in Stanford, California. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)

Artificial intelligence increases risks to national security. Here’s how to do it right

For this reason, we should not be asking what America can do for Silicon Valley, but rather what Silicon Valley must do for America.

The AI ​​revolution could help cure cancer and rare diseases, lower housing costs, facilitate the creation of businesses and factories, meet our energy needs, and lower medical and educational costs for the working class.

But in the hands of a few billionaires, the priority is eliminating jobs, profit-making, and our addiction to obscene content that turns us from citizens into fighters.

Palantir’s Shyam Sankar: Americans ‘are being lied to’ about AI job displacement fears

I’m not an AI accelerator.

I am not governed by artificial intelligence.

I’m an AI Democrat.

Scoop: Trump brings big tech to White House to reduce energy costs amid AI boom

So I want to lay out seven principles for what democratic AI looks like. This vision is part of a broader call for national renewal to achieve shared prosperity in our nation, not oligarchic capture and domination. I have a vision of a new economic patriotism where we have a thriving middle class with good jobs in our rural communities, our factory towns, our suburban neighborhoods, and our urban centers.

Here’s what it means for AI in America.

First, we must keep humans in the loop.

AI players are pouring money into competitive primaries as the 2026 midterm elections heat up

We need real protection against mass displacement, starting with our 3.5 million truck drivers. Even as self-driving trucks improve safety and efficiency, human drivers and pilots must continue to fly our planes. This will allow us to develop artificial intelligence that enhances human capability rather than eliminating jobs.

Second, every large company must negotiate with its workers.

Unions or elected representatives must ensure that displaced workers move into new value-creating roles, and can share in AI productivity gains through higher wages, profit-sharing, and shorter work weeks.

We’re on the other side of the aisle. But we know that America must win the AI ​​race, or else

Third, we must work to fix the anti-human bias in the tax code.

Robots get a rapid depreciation while employing humans comes with payroll taxes. Nobel laureate Darun Acemoglu estimates that companies pay about zero taxes on digital tools, while paying roughly 30% of the taxes between employers and employees when they hire workers. This doesn’t make any sense. We should make it easier to hire workers, not AI agents.

We also need to create an annual distribution of data so that every American gets a check on the data they generate for private companies and government activities like public health, traffic management, and policy research.

Palantir’s Shyam Sankar: US must use AI as a ‘slingshot’ against China or face economic defeat

Fourth, we must launch future workforce management.

We must seize this moment of anxiety among working families and workers alike, and respond with the boldest and most patriotic jobs agenda in generations.

Funded by a modest wealth tax on the trillions created here, and by a nominal tax on the artificial intelligence used by labor-replacing companies, this program would enable Americans to work in… Public service. This initiative will advance pioneering projects that push the boundaries of science, clean energy, and biotechnology.

Rep. Pressley pushes the Amnesty International Civil Rights Act, which aims to protect “special” black, brown, and marginalized people

It will mobilize young people to rebuild cities, educate our children, provide child and elder care, and strengthen small businesses in every community.

We will launch 1,000 new trade schools and technical institutes, so that the next generation is prepared for careers that AI cannot replace.

Fifth, data centers must serve the communities they power.

China advances in artificial intelligence – Trump warns that America cannot organize itself for defeat

Currently, data centers are one of the centers of extraction from societies to wealthier companies.

This must end.

Technology companies need to provide local communities with computing resources for schools and libraries, create local tech jobs and fund startups, and use renewable energy and dry cooling technology. We have to look at what Singapore has done with its data centers in order to find a balanced solution and invest in significantly increasing clean energy supplies. And most importantly, Technology companies They should pay their electricity bills in full instead of shifting the costs to our communities.

Artificial intelligence out of control? How one article sends shockwaves with a shocking warning

Sixth, we must prevent artificial intelligence from weaponizing our public discourse.

We can unite across party lines to stop engagement-based algorithms from spreading hate. End Section 230 protections for amplified violent content and demand that platforms be opened so Americans can communicate freely across them.

Seventh, we must regulate artificial intelligence so that it is used to improve humanity, not harm it.

Mike Davis: Congress must stop Big Tech’s AI scam before it’s too late

We need clear, enforceable guardrails with mandatory third-party verification for advanced AI models, so that this powerful technology does not cause serious societal harm. It needs to be more than just the voluntary collaboration that happens at NIST’s Center for Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Standards in Commerce. We need a strong federal agency to regulate AI like we regulate nuclear power or federal aviation.

We need a program of the boldness and scale of the New Deal, a democratic project for our time. Not to slow innovation, but to ensure that its benefits reach every American.

The United States will benefit from global market access for our AI models Ensure their safety – Prevent agent AI from causing harm – and data privacy.

Click here for more Fox News opinions

These principles are the beginning of a framework for ensuring that AI does not lead to a level of concentration of wealth and power that further fractures our democracy. If we continue the status quo or adopt a gradual, poll-tested approach, we will leave ordinary Americans out in the cold, and modern prosperity will be the preserve of the privileged.

I’m not going to sit back and watch that happen.

Click here to download the FOX NEWS app

We need a program of the boldness and scale of the New Deal, a democratic project for our time. Not to slow innovation, but to ensure that its benefits reach every American. A program that says in essence – there will be no surrender to the tech tycoons. no one. Just restoring artificial intelligence to the American people.

So my challenge to Stanford students—the leaders of technology and emerging businesses—is simple. The future doesn’t have to be written by AI agents serving San Francisco billionaires. As with any other pivotal moment in American history, it must be written by all of us, together, in a way that bridges our divisions and gives us a new national goal of economic renewal and independence for every American everywhere in our beloved nation.

This editorial is adapted from Representative Ro Khanna’s remarks at a town hall event at Stanford University with Senator Bernie Sanders on February 20, 2026.

Click here to read more from REP. Ro betrayed us

Related article