The California gubernatorial candidate understands exactly what’s at stake, as he explains in an exclusive interview.
Tom Steyer in Santa Rosa, California on May 27, 2026.
(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images) That of Pope Leo groundbreaking encyclical on AI reminds us that the great debate of our moment is not really about technology. These are political choices that will decide whether this new industrial revolution – which is destined to disrupt everything in the way we work, communicate, organize society and wage wars – will be made to improve the lives of ordinary people or for the fundamental interests of billionaires who are trying to become billionaires.
Leo is clear on his position, writing: “Artificial intelligence must be disarmed… The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words that can attract attention, raise awareness and indicate the paths forward for humanity.” »
The Pope is right to be concerned and engage in the debate over whether a handful of tech company CEOs will determine the future of this planet.
The question then is whether political leaders will oppose this haste by little billionaires both to develop artificial intelligence and to buy influence on the future of AI through massive political spending and lobbying efforts. So far, only a handful of elected officials and candidates have demonstrated the knowledge and courage necessary to join the debate on behalf of a lot.
Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders has significantly intensified, calling for a moratorium on the development of AI data centers to slow the rush to robotize workplaces, amplify disinformation, increase surveillance, and accelerate militarization. So is U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, who has proposed smart strategies to regulate AI, tax tech billionaires and ensure that working-class Americans have access to the education, training and opportunities they will need to survive in a future transformed by artificial intelligence and robots.
But they’re the exception in Washington, and the situation isn’t much better across the United States, except perhaps in California, where progressive philanthropist Tom Steyer is running a gubernatorial campaign arguing that “the people who stand to benefit most from this technology shouldn’t set rules for how it’s used. Otherwise, the AI era will be a new boom for billionaires — and a disaster for everyone else.”
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Steyer, a longtime climate advocate and billionaire who knows Silicon Valley well, has emerged as the leading progressive Democratic candidate ahead of Tuesday’s intense open primary for the nation’s most powerful governor. Polls show that Steyer, who self-funded much of his campaign, has a good chance of being one of two candidates who advance through the primary and face off in November. And AI policy is a key part of his agenda.
Steyer pulls no punches when he talks about taxing the wealth of the tech elite, holding industry accountable, and using state power to ensure working-class Californians aren’t left behind by the AI revolution. “Globalization has displaced millions of workers, with no plan for what comes next,” he says. “We cannot allow this history to repeat itself in the AI era.”
With this in mind, Steyer developed a bold and comprehensive plan to “ensure all Californians benefit from AI.” He wants to provide smart job protections for workers and retrain those displaced by AI. He also wants to ask voters to approve the creation of the Golden State Sovereign Wealth Fund. As his campaign explains, the fund would serve as a “dedicated investment vehicle, financed by a “token tax” on companies’ use of AI – a fraction of a cent for every unit of data processed by big tech.
The fund’s resources would “help ensure that everyday Californians participate in the AI boom, through cash dividends, investments in education, training and job opportunities to help workers succeed, and strategic investments to ensure broad-based economic growth so every Californian can get ahead.”
The clarity of this message helps explain why Khanna and unions, increasingly concerned about AI, supported Steyer. His other progressive positions – as a billionaire who wants to tax billionaires and an enthusiastic supporter of Medicare for All, building affordable housing and making education affordable for all Californians – have attracted support the California Nurses Association, the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers, the Service Employees International Union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the California Federation of Labor Unions, hospitality workers and other organizations organized by UNITE-HERE, the Sierra Club, Our Revolution, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, environmentalist Bill McKibben, and U.S. Reps. Lateefah Simon and Jared Huffman.
Predictably, Steyer has also generated desperate opposition from big-spending political action committees favored by the healthcare, utilities, fossil fuel, and AI industries. Mark Zuckerberg’s meta, for example, recently invested $950,000 in a political action committee that supports Xavier Becerra, a former California attorney general, congressman and Biden cabinet member who has emerged as the front-runner for corporate interests in the gubernatorial race.
Steyer’s response was direct: “Mark Zuckerberg wants a friend in Sacramento. I won’t be.”
Steyer was equally forthright when I spoke to him recently about race in general and his stance on AI in particular. “You never know how things are going to turn out, but the people who run the biggest companies, the biggest large-scale language model, [artificial intelligence algorithm] companies – believe it’s a 30-foot tsunami coming at us at 100 miles an hour.
Faced with this reality, the business-friendly AI policies adopted by the Trump administration and the disengaged responses of too many Democrats make no sense to Steyer. “Obviously, AI is largely being developed in California,” he said. “It’s not ‘will happen’- it happens. This is absolutely happening. That being said, Steyer argued, progressives cannot remain on the sidelines of the debate.
“Wait until it hits and see what happens? That doesn’t seem like an appropriate response to me,” the candidate explained. “By the time the tsunami hits, it’s a little difficult to reach the heights.”
So Steyer met with key industry figures, as well as union leaders and labor experts, to get a clear picture of what jobs are threatened by AI and robots and how to approach the situation of those displaced by technology. “We’ve talked a lot about protecting workers. We’ve talked a lot about real retraining to get people into real jobs.”
Additionally, Steyer said, “We talked about the fact that people in California were essentially getting a nominal fee, for every calculation the artificial intelligence did, in order to give [Californians a piece of the largesse that comes from the transformation of their workplaces]. The people of California need to own it because we can’t have 12 billion people and 40 million people who can’t make rent because they’re losing their jobs. This cannot happen, and we cannot let it happen. »
What’s striking about Steyer is the detail with which he addressed issues that his fellow gubernatorial candidates — like most political figures in the country — barely address. For example, Steyer’s campaign said:
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“Tom will ensure that we protect workers and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs that AI cannot achieve. Whatever its potential, AI will not replace all thinking and creative jobs. Even if it can make them faster or more efficient, no machine can replace our innate creativity, compassion and experience, the uniquely human things we bring to our jobs.” “Tom will partner with unions to adopt reasonable safeguards for the use of AI in the workplace, particularly around privacy, health, security and equity.” “Tom will demand that social media platforms carry out safety audits and strictly enforce age requirements, including requiring independent safety testing to ensure models are safe. Before they go to the market. “Data centers should never cost California families a dime. Tom will demand that data centers ensure that energy prices for families go down, not up.” “Tom will ban social media for children under 16 because the link between social media use and the youth mental health crisis is clear.” “There must be human oversight of AI with the ability to override, especially in critical areas.” This is not the final word on AI, and there are still many questions that Steyer and other candidates, in California and nationally, should answer about this technological revolution. But Steyer’s willingness to engage in the AI debate and propose progressive, informed responses to the issues it raises distinguishes him as a candidate whose election could have a profound influence on a future that should choose people over profits.
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John Nichols John Nichols is the editor-in-chief of The Nation. He was previously the magazine’s national affairs correspondent and Washington correspondent. Nichols has written, co-authored or edited more than a dozen books on topics ranging from the history of American socialism and the Democratic Party to analyzes of American and global media systems. His latest, co-written with Senator Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller It’s okay to be angry at capitalism.
