Bernie Sands Gets Claude To Repeat Concerns On AI, Privacy, And Its Impacts On Democracy
Bernie Sands Gets Claude To Repeat Concerns On AI, Privacy, And Its Impacts On Democracy
https://dailydot.com/bernie-sanders-claude-ai-privacy
Publish Date: 2026-03-20 18:00:00
Source Domain: dailydot.com
Senator Bernie Sanders posted a political ad on Thursday in which he spoke to Anthropic’s “Claude” about AI and privacy concerns. The large language model (LLM) echoed left-wing concerns about tech companies gathering massive amounts of data with dubious consent from subjects, then selling it for profit.
Some found the ad effective, while others pointed out that LLMs are programmed to tell you what you want to hear.
Bernie Sanders interviews Claude
In a video posted to the senator’s X account, Sanders sits at a table before a mic stand holding a phone with Claude downloaded and ready for a prompt. The 84-year-old asks the LLM how much it and other “AI” programs are using the data collected about individuals online and what might surprise Americans on the subject.
“What an AI agent says about the dangers of AI is shocking and should wake us up,” the account claimed.
I spoke to Anthropic’s AI agent Claude about AI collecting massive amounts of personal data and how that information is being used to violate our privacy rights.
What an AI agent says about the dangers of AI is shocking and should wake us up. pic.twitter.com/rUGwuZLAye
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 19, 2026
Claude goes on to list facts about data harvesting that were in the open before the rise of generative AI. Websites collect information about everything from purchases to where you pause on a page and for how long. That data forms detailed profiles about every person who uses the internet.
Everyone “consents” to this any time they click “agree” without reading the dissertation companies’ call to their “Terms of Service.”
That data then determines what ads people see and when, what individual social feeds look like, and even adjusts the prices they’re given online.
When Sanders asks why this is happening, Claude generates an answer that makes the senator chuckle.
“Money, Senator,” it says. “It’s fundamentally about profit.”
That, and political power. It regurgitates the known fact that political…
