Polling from California, national survey shows voters want elected officials to rein in billionaire control of AI
SAN FRANCISCO — Tax the Ultra-Rich Now (TURN) today hosted a press call with Supervisor Connie Chan, Progressive Change Campaign Committee Co-Founder Adam Green, and author Adam Becker focused on highlighting policies that will combat the greed and wealth inequality worsened by AI. With AI already being used to push wages down across entire industries, replace human workers, and weaken unions’ bargaining power in the process, elected officials and policy experts are demonstrating how the unprecedented wealth generated by AI translates directly into unaccountable political power—making a direct case for why we need Prop 40.
“We publicly announced a plan to address tax evasion, and billionaires are throwing tens of millions of dollars into fighting it—when they could simply pay into the system and support it. What we are seeing is that exact power dynamic: Billionaires would rather spend money to protect themselves, their greed, and their profits than contribute back to the state and the communities surrounding them,” said Connie Chan, member of the Board of Supervisors for San Francisco and candidate for Congress. “Instead, what they are going to do is shift those resources to invest in AI and technology that can replace our workforce.”
“What’s actually happening here on the ground and across the nation is an unprecedented concentration of wealth in the hands of a small number of individuals. The wealth generated by AI translates directly into unregulated political power, and that allows a handful of tech oligarchs to dictate public policy, purchase political influence, and shape our economic future behind closed doors,” said Igor Volsky, campaign manager for TURN. “The vast majority of Americans want leaders to reduce billionaire control of AI before they use it to consolidate even more wealth and power—and it’s time our leaders in California and across the country listen.”
“What we’re seeing is that wealth taxation, AI accountability, and campaign finance reform are hot topics on the campaign trail—including in red states like Nebraska and purple states like Michigan,” said Adam Green, Co-Founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). “Big tech billionaires want to rewrite the rules of society through AI to consolidate their own power, and they want to rewrite the rules of society by bribing and intimidating politicians in order to line their own pockets. All of this is solved by neutering their ability to do so through a combination of taxing wealth, reforming our campaign finance law, and making sure we have real guardrails in AI.”
“Billionaires see AI as a way of not just concentrating wealth and power, but also as a way of replacing their need to depend on the rest of us. Tech barons would not be able to get by without us, but we can get by without them just fine,” said Adam Becker, author of More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity. “Americans just can’t get by with them if they keep this chokehold on wealth and power, and we don’t use our own democratic power to break their hold.”
Outside of California, new nationwide polling shows that the majority (74%) of Americans want leaders to reduce billionaire control of AI before they use it to consolidate even more power and wealth. That includes not only 85% of Democrats, but also 74% of Independents and 63% of Republicans.
Other key findings include:
- 78 percent support stronger policies to prevent a select few from controlling transformative technology like AI, and 74 percent agree we need to reduce billionaire control of AI before they use it to consolidate even more power and wealth
- 69 percent say the rapid rise of AI makes it more urgent than ever to limit billionaire power
- 63 percent say no individual should be able to accumulate $1 trillion, and 73 percent support establishing a reasonable maximum amount of wealth
- 68 percent favor increased tax enforcement on the wealthiest households, while 55 percent support an explicit tax designed to reduce billionaire wealth over time
- 61 percent support the “Five and Dime” tax, an annual 5 percent tax on wealth over $50 million and 10 percent on wealth over $250 million, including 52 percent of Republicans
With AI turbocharging the wealth grab and with companies weaponizing it against working people—using the wealth they’ve hoarded to write the rules in their own favor—participants also highlighted how a nationwide wealth tax will help reduce the wealth and influence billionaires hoard amid the AI boom.
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TURN (Tax the Ultra-Rich Now) is a coalition of working families, health care workers, educators, and everyday Californians fighting to shrink the power billionaires hold over our economy, our democracy, and our future. Taxation is our tool: It funds our schools, health care, and communities while cutting excessive wealth down to size so the rest of us can thrive.