{"id":44816,"date":"2025-10-30T13:07:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44816"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:07:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:07:30","slug":"bernie-sanders-calls-out-2-san-francisco-tech-startups-in-1-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/30\/bernie-sanders-calls-out-2-san-francisco-tech-startups-in-1-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Sanders calls out 2 San Francisco tech startups in 1 week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Stephen Council<\/a><\/strong>,Tech Reporter<\/em> Oct 28, 2025 (SFGate.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two San Francisco startups<\/a> focused on very different aspects of artificial intelligence<\/a> have caught Bernie Sanders\u2019 eye \u2014 and he made his worries known this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vermont senator, who\u2019s drawn large crowds this year on his nationwide \u201cFighting Oligarchy<\/a>\u201d tour with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has in recent weeks ramped up his focus on the impacts of AI. First came a\u00a0report<\/a>, in early October, with Sanders\u2019 policy suggestions for helping workers. This week, he brought his concerns more directly to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with Axios<\/a> that published on Friday, Sanders talked through his concerns that AI\u2019s leaders don\u2019t care about working-class people and that AI could cause \u201cmassive job dislocation.\u201d Asked whether he thinks OpenAI should be broken up, he said, \u201cI do,\u201d and added that AI\u2019s advent is like \u201ca meteor coming to this planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, he pivoted to the social side. He didn\u2019t name the San Francisco startup Friend but pointed to it directly \u2014 the AI pendant-maker has grown notorious this year for vast numbers of billboards<\/a> in Los Angeles and New York that imply its device can become a friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are products now being sold as, \u2018You don\u2019t need to relate to a human being anymore! You\u2019ll have somebody hanging around your neck as your AI buddy,\u2019\u201d Sanders said. \u201cAnd in a country where there\u2019s a lot of emotional distress, I really worry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friend CEO\u00a0Avi Schiffmann shared the\u00a0interview clip<\/a>\u00a0on X. He told SFGATE in a text on Tuesday that he\u2019s glad to be working on something politicians \u201crealize they need have an opinion on\u201d and thinks his campaign has helped solidify the pendant as \u201cthe\u00a0ai companion device form factor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t view the concept as dystopian nor replacing human connection, it is simply a new kind of relationship that I believe will only deepen our understanding of ourselves and everyone else,\u201d Schiffmann wrote. \u201cI guess we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friend is far from the only company working on AI companions, and it\u2019s unclear whether Meta<\/a>\u2019s AI glasses, OpenAI and Jony Ive\u2019s secrecy-shrouded collaboration<\/a>, or some other startup will push the new technology further into our everyday lives. Sanders isn\u2019t the only politician concerned about the safety and implications of AI; on Tuesday, Sanders\u2019 Senate colleagues Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal announced<\/a> a bipartisan bill that would ban chatbot companions for minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders threw another salvo at San Francisco\u2019s tech scene on Monday, posting<\/a> a fuzzy image to Instagram of a billboard for Artisan that blared: \u201cStop Hiring Humans\u201d and \u201cThe Era of AI Employees Is Here.\u201d Artisan sells tools that automate various sales tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senator wrote: \u201cBillboards across the country are promoting the replacement of millions of jobs with AI and robotics. Great idea. One simple question: How will those displaced workers survive when there are no jobs or income for them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artisan\u2019s inflammatory billboard campaign \u2014 the startup has the same message on a wall at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Moscone West this week \u2014 has, like Friend\u2019s, succeeded in spreading name recognition. \u201cLuckily, the people who were mad aren\u2019t our target audience,\u201d CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack wrote in a June blog post<\/a> praising the campaign\u2019s results. \u201cWe target tech companies, and the vast majority of people who work at and run tech companies loved the campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DO IT NOW<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When SFGATE<\/a> wrote about the company\u2019s billboards in December, the CEO said in a text: \u201cThey are somewhat dystopian, but so is AI. The way the world works is changing.\u201d He didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders\u2019 post about Artisan, as of Tuesday afternoon, had amassed almost 188,000 likes. His office did not respond to SFGATE\u2019s requests for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oct 28, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Council<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tech Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Council is the tech reporter at SFGATE. He has covered technology and business for The Information, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC and CalMatters, where his reporting won a San Francisco Press Club award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signal: 628-204-5452
Email:\u00a0stephen.council@sfgate.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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