Senator Bernie Sanders Campaigns with Cooke in Chippewa Valley

Senator Bernie Sanders visited the Chippewa Valley over the weekend for a campaign event with Democratic Third Congressional District candidate Rebecca Cooke.

The event at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire on Sunday morning sought to energize local voters and highlight a number of important issues ahead of the midterm election, including campaign finance reform, the war in Iran, tariffs, and healthcare affordability. During his speech, Senator Sanders also tried to put just how large the wealth inequality gap in the United States has become into perspective.

"So you have an economy in which the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 93 percent," he said. "You have an economy in which Mr. Musk, the wealthiest guy on Earth himself, owns more wealth than the bottom 53 percent of American households. Does anybody think that is what America's economy should be like?"

Senator Sanders also spoke about the potential impacts of artificial intelligence. He highlighted the negative effect the technology could have on the workforce, particularly in the manufacturing industry, and whether humanity will even be capable of controlling AI as it continues to advance so rapidly.

"If AI becomes smarter than human beings, will humanity be able to control AI or not," he asked the crowd. "And if we can not control AI, they operate independently of human control, then what happens? And the answer is nobody knows. But there are some very frightening prospects if that happens. So in the midst of all of that, I hold a very radical idea that maybe humanity should remain the dominant species on planet Earth."

Senator Sanders has endorsed Cooke in the midterm election, who is looking to unseat incumbent Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden next week.