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Senator Mark Kelly wants AI companies to pay into a fund to offset AI’s negative impacts

The proposal would use money from top frontier AI companies to create an “AI Horizon Fund” to help retrain workers and pay for infrastructure upgrades in a “public / private partnership.”

Jon Keegan

9/17/25 4:00AM

The list of AI’s potential effects on society are growing by the week.

Skyrocketing demand for new energy generation needed to power massive data centers are raising utility bills, and generators are spewing methane into the atmosphere. Chatbots are encouraging self-harm to vulnerable users. AI leaders are warning of massive labor shifts as whole categories of jobs will be automated out of existence.

With the Trump administration signaling a regulatory free-for-all for AI companies, other than voluntary measures, it’s unclear how these negative impacts can be blunted if they get out of hand.

Senator Mark Kelly is proposing a novel plan to tackle some of these problems: making the AI companies foot at least a part of the bill.

In a new proposal, Kelly calls for the top frontier AI companies to come together and all pitch a pile of money into what he calls the “AI Horizon Fund.”

“My solution is simple: The companies driving this technology must help preserve and strengthen the foundation that spurred American AI leadership in the first place.”

Kelly is looking at the massive valuations of the leading AI companies and the hundreds of billions they’re throwing at AI infrastructure projects as a resource to fund the plan. Kelly writes:

“It’s common sense to tap the enormous profits of the big companies developing and deploying AI so innovation thrives, opportunity is shared, and every community benefits. The fund would leverage multiple options for generating sustainable revenues from industry. With guidance from educators, workers, unions, experts, and industry, those funds would then be reinvested into programs that train workers for high-demand careers, including those deploying the AI innovations of tomorrow and the infrastructure that supports them.”

The outline is light on specifics, and is presented as “a starting point for conversation.” It’s not clear if companies would be legally compelled to contribute, such as through a tax on AI profits.

Many other large issues could complicate such an endeavor, including a sharply divided Congress, an administration that has pulled top tech executives close into its orbit, and companies that aren’t likely to want to pour money into a government fund.

Among the ideas in the plan to help balance out the impact of AI:

Supporting workers displaced by AI through enhanced unemployment insurance benefits.
“Upskilling” and “reskilling” of American workers, in the mold of trade apprenticeship models.
Making data centers pay: “Frontier AI companies that place heavy demands on public infrastructure or environmental resources need to not only offset these impacts but strengthen the systems and infrastructure on which they depend.”
Funding ongoing research into the harms of AI, including effects on mental health, fraudulent uses of AI to prey on vulnerable populations, and the effects of bias.

Walt Hickey

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10/21/25

Traders are getting more and more pessimistic about the government shutdown ending any time soon

The market expects the shutdown to last well into November.

Jon Keegan

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OpenAI’s internal Slack messages could cost it billions in copyright suit

Authors and publishers suing OpenAI over copyright infringement were granted access to internal OpenAI communications about the deletion of a pirated books dataset, and now want to review attorney communications.

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US corporate spending on private flights for executives has ballooned in recent years

The median expense spent by America’s largest companies on air travel jumped 66% from 2020 to 2024.

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OK, so when was the longest shutdown in US history?

The US government officially shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday after senators failed to agree on a last-minute funding bill. Though initially shrugging off the threat of a shutdown during yesterday’s session, stocks were mildly in the red on Wednesday as investors reacted to what is now the 11th shutdown in the government’s history.

Until this latest shutdown, there had been 20 government funding gaps experienced since 1976 — though not all ended in a full shutdown, with full closure averted in half of those cases.

Indeed, prior to the 1980s, funding gaps didn’t typically have major effects on government operations, with agencies continuing to operate on the basis that the funding would come eventually. However, a more stringent interpretation of the rules led to a stricter appropriations process from the early 1980s onward, with many subsequent funding gaps resulting in a shutdown of affected agencies (unless the gaps were quickly fixed or occurred over a weekend).

Obviously, the duration of the latest shutdown is still unclear, but it will continue until Congress passes a funding bill — most likely via a “continuing resolution,” which has ended every shutdown since 1990. Data analyzed by USAFacts suggest that it might not be a one- or two-day affair, as funding gaps have lengthened in recent years.

Government shutdown patterns — Sherwood News

Indeed, the last shutdown, which began in December 2018, ended up becoming the longest in history, at a whopping 34 days. By the time the government reopened in January 2019, about $3 billion (in 2019 dollars) had been wiped from the GDP in Q4, per data from the Congressional Budget Office, with approximately $18 billion in “federal discretionary spending” delayed over the roughly five-week stretch.

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GM climbs following upgrade, report that Trump administration seeks stake in its lithium mine partner

Shares of General Motors rose more than 2% in premarket trading Wednesday following an upgrade of the stock by UBS from “neutral” to “buy.” The firm also hiked its price target for GM by 45% to $81.

Also likely elevating GM was a Reuters report that the Trump administration is exploring taking a 10% stake in Lithium Americas, the automaker’s partner in a yet to open Thacker Pass lithium mine. Shares of Lithium Americas surged 68% in the premarket.

GM, which invested $625 million into the lithium mine last year, holds a 38% stake in the joint venture. The mine is expected to become the Western Hemisphere’s primary lithium source in 2028, when it’s slated to open, producing enough of the metal to make 800,000 electric vehicle batteries.

Prior to its plans for Lithium Americas, the Trump administration last month said it would take a 10% stake in Intel. In July, it announced a 15% stake in rare earths miner MP Materials.

Senator Mark Kelly wants AI companies to pay into a fund to offset AI’s negative impacts

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OK, so when was the longest shutdown in US history?

GM climbs following upgrade, report that Trump administration seeks stake in its lithium mine partner

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