‘Go to hell’: Bernie Sanders unites labor leaders in huge push for AI protections and a halt to data center construction – growing national anti-data center sentiment results in protests, bans, and project cancellations

• Senator Bernie Sanders has told US oligarchs to 'Go to hell'
• He joined labor leaders in calling for greater worker protection from AI
• Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have called for a pause on AI development

Senator Bernie Sanders has told oligarchs to “Go to hell” during a rally, where he united with labor leaders to call on congress for more stringent protections on AI.

“AI and robotics are the most consequential and transformational technologies in the history of humanity,” Sanders said.

“What it means is in 10 years, the idea of a manufacturing job will no longer exist,” Sanders continued, referring to Jeff Bezos' plans to purchase and automate factories across the United States.

AI will cause ‘sweeping changes’

In a statement accompanying a video shared online, Sanders said, “The same oligarchs who shipped jobs overseas now want to replace tens of millions of American workers with AI. Our message to them is: Go to hell.”

The video saw Sanders target Tesla, specifically Elon Musk’s plans to convert the company to focus on robotics with the plan to build 100 million robots per year. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was also in Sanders’ crosshairs for his prediction that most white collar work will be fully automated by AI within the next 12 to 18 months.

“We are looking at sweeping changes to blue collar workers, sweeping changes to white collar workers,” Sanders said. “You know who is pushing these technologies? The richest people on earth: Mr. Musk, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Ellison, and others.” he added. “What they want to do is replace human workers.”

New entrants to the job market, especially graduates, are finding it increasingly difficult to find employment as AI tackles the tasks that most new starters would handle upon entering white collar industries. Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently said in an interview, "If you are the kind of person that would’ve gone to Yale, classically high IQ, and you have generalized knowledge but it’s not specific, you’re effed."

Growing opposition to data centers

The fear that AI threatens jobs isn’t a view held solely by Sanders and labor unions. Numerous polls and surveys have found that the American public is concerned about AI, especially the construction of new data centers upon which AI models rely.

For example, a Checkr survey found 79% of US workers are worried that adopting AI will result in pay cuts, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71% fear AI will be "putting too many people out of work permanently," and an NBC News poll found that almost half (46%) of registered US voters have a negative view of AI.

The sentiment isn’t confined to polls. Voter support for new data centers in Virginia has dropped from 69% in 2023 to 35% in 2026, with plans for one of the largest data centers ever conceived being abandoned.

Half of a Missouri city council lost reelection bids after approving a $6 billion data center, and Maine has become the first US state to pass a ban on the construction of new data centers.

Data Center Watch, a website run by 10a Labs that tracks opposition to data centers, has recorded that $156 billion in data center projects have been blocked in 2025, with opposition to new and existing projects growing on a national scale.

In March, Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez submitted legislation to enact a pause on AI development to safeguard workers, energy prices, and the health and wellbeing of the American public.

"We cannot sit back and allow a handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs to make decisions that will reshape our economy, our democracy and the future of humanity," Sanders said following the announcement of the legislation. "We need serious public debate and democratic oversight over this enormously consequential issue. The time for action is now. We need a federal moratorium on AI data centers.”

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