‘Constantly recording’: Bernie Sanders warns of a looming surveillance state and name-drops the potential architect behind it

Bernie Sanders is raising serious concerns about artificial intelligence and surveillance. The Vermont Senator criticized comments made by Oracle Corp CTO Larry Ellison about AI’s future and plans to introduce a bill calling for a national moratorium on AI data center construction. Sanders fears the US is heading toward an AI surveillance state – a future where, as Ellison himself put it, “we’re constantly recording and reporting everything.”

In a video message, Sanders questioned whether AI will lead to a freer and more democratic society or hand more power to “the oligarchs who control the technology.” He warned of a world where billionaires could track every phone call, email, text, and internet activity, undermining democracy and eroding privacy.

Ellison, currently the world’s second-richest person with a net worth of $281 billion, made these remarks in September 2024 at an Oracle financial analyst meeting.

He described AI processing massive amounts of video from cameras placed everywhere, in cars, homes, and police equipment, and said “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report that problem.” He also suggested citizens would be on their “best behavior” because everything would be recorded.

Sanders’ proposed moratorium targets the biggest AI data centers and names the billionaires behind them

To address this, Sanders plans to introduce a bill calling for a national moratorium on data center construction. According to Wired, the moratorium would remain in place until new laws are passed to protect the public from AI-related harms. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plans to introduce a similar bill in the House.

Sanders said the pause would ensure AI benefits working families, not just a few billionaires, and that it remains safe, effective, and does not harm the environment or raise electricity bills.

The bill targets data centers used for AI with an energy load above 20 megawatts. The moratorium would only be lifted once laws are in place to prevent these centers from contributing to climate change, harming the environment, or raising electricity costs.

 It also requires tech companies to ensure AI products do not harm “the health and well-being of working families, privacy and civil rights, and the future of humanity.” The bill specifically names Elon Musk of xAI, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei of Anthropic.

This push comes amid growing public opposition to data centers. People are concerned about higher electric bills, increased water usage, environmental damage, and land rights. In the second quarter of 2025 alone, $98 billion in data center projects were stalled or canceled due to community pushback, and some landowners are actively rejecting multi-million dollar offers to fight data center expansion.

The Trump administration, however, has given a “full-throated endorsement” of AI, though experts noted that a nonbinding agreement signed at a White House event in March was largely symbolic. Notably, Sanders has been finding unexpected common ground with MAGA-friendly audiences on some of these economic concerns.

Surveillance technology is already expanding rapidly. Automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) are becoming more common, with AI greatly extending their reach. These systems capture plate data, vehicle images, and timestamps, building large searchable databases. 

Companies like Flock Safety use AI to analyze this data and alert local authorities. ALPR databases have already been shared with federal immigration agencies and used to monitor protests. In 2025, Texas authorities accessed Flock’s surveillance data during an abortion investigation, raising serious concerns about the use of such tools without strong legal safeguards.