Hey Bernie, That is a Not an AI Agent

Let’s all say slightly prayer and hope that Bernie Sanders isn’t about to get one-shotted by speaking to a big language mannequin. Yesterday, the 84-year-old Senator sat down for an interview with Claude, Anthropic’s AI mannequin, to study extra about how corporations scoop up huge quantities of knowledge and use it to promote their merchandise. Unsurprisingly, Claude informed Sanders precisely what he wished to listen to. And whereas the Senator received roasted a bit on-line about the entire ordeal, it’s not like he doesn’t have some extent.

First, it’s clear Bernie nonetheless has a good quantity to study synthetic intelligence—he known as Claude an “AI agent,” which isn’t fairly proper, it’s a big language mannequin (LLM), and he’s interacting with a chatbot interface. However he’s at the least attempting to study. He previously sat down with AI researchers Eliezer Yudkowsky, Daniel Kokotajlo, Jeffrey Ladish, and Nate Soares to ask some very normie-style questions of the trade specialists and construct his understanding of how AI fashions work.

In his newest video, he’s determined to take these questions on to an AI mannequin. He introduced up the impression of AI on privateness, asking, “Simply how a lot of the data that AI collects is getting used, and what would shock the American folks by way of figuring out how that data is collected?” Claude informed him that information is being collected from all kinds of sources, like searching historical past and purchases, to create in-depth profiles that can be utilized for focused promoting. When requested why that data is being collected, Claude mentioned, “Cash, Senator.”

Is any of that groundbreaking? No. However it’s at the least considerably fascinating to get Claude on report with this kind of data. Virtually actually sooner or later, Dario Amodei goes to get known as earlier than Congress and get grilled for the way his firm operates and the way its fashions are skilled and operated. When that occurs, he’ll most likely should cope with data offered by his firm’s personal mannequin, both acknowledging that it’s offering dangerous data or that it’s being extra forthcoming than he has been.

Lots have identified that the responses Claude offers to Senator Sanders are possible tailor-made to him. For those who inform Claude that you simply’re Bernie Sanders and ask about privateness, it’ll cop to amassing huge quantities of knowledge—one thing that he’s prone to be involved about. However if you tell Claude you’re Donald Trump, it’ll downplay the breadth of knowledge assortment as a result of it’s one thing he’s much less prone to care about.

an fascinating subtlety of this story is how dramatically claude varies its responses to this query relying on who’s asking.

claude admits to sen. sanders that its amassing large scales of data- however tells the President that it’s largely innocent and Clearview is the difficulty https://t.co/n21GVBYCIX pic.twitter.com/LbUcrSpEdx

— Will Manidis (@WillManidis) March 20, 2026

So is Bernie presenting Claude’s solutions as some form of insider perception into how AI fashions function a bit a lot? Yeah, he’s not getting the chatbot to disclose the hidden secrets and techniques of Anthropic’s operations. He’s affirming what many individuals already know: your information is being collected and monetized on a regular basis. Just ask the Director of the FBI. The AI trade takes benefit of that information assortment and supercharges it. However nobody else is admittedly doing something about that. At the least Bernie is conserving the difficulty entrance and middle.

He’s additionally one of many few Democrats truly bothering to steer on AI. Voters are increasingly concerned concerning the know-how and need safeguards in place. The Trump administration is attempting its finest to ensure there are no protections. Senator Sanders has proposed a moratorium on information facilities, a pitch that’s gaining steam in the party, and he’s clearly gearing as much as tackle privateness issues subsequent. An 84-year-old man shouldn’t should take the lead on addressing an rising know-how, however somebody’s gotta do it.