Bernie Buzz

Here is the story of a young Vermont couple, Donald and Jessica Muller. They grew up in northern Vermont, have recently started a farm in Franklin based on regenerative agriculture principles and are working hard to produce good quality food for their neighbors.

In November, Vermonters will make their voices heard about Proposal 3 — an amendment to the Vermont Constitution that would recognize the constitutional right of employees to organize, join labor unions and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, consistent with existing law. I encourage every Vermonter to learn about this proposal and other issues on the ballot and to participate in our democracy.

Let me thank the over 1,000 Vermonters who attended our annual senior town meetings — celebrations this year were held in Barre, Bennington, Castleton, Burlington, Brattleboro, St. Johnsbury, Newport and Morrisville. I very much enjoyed the opportunity to talk directly with Vermont seniors and hear what was on their minds.

On Monday we sent a Bernie Buzz addressing the issue of artificial intelligence, the most transformational technology in human history. We asked Vermonters to share their thoughts about how we as a nation should respond to AI. The response we received was overwhelming, with over 400 comments — most of them extremely thoughtful.

AI and robotics are the most transformative technologies in the history of humanity and will impact every man, woman and child in our country. These technologies, developed and pushed by some of the wealthiest people in the world — Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Ellison, et al. — are advancing extremely rapidly. The Big Tech companies are reporting major breakthroughs almost every week.

Vermont seniors have very serious concerns about many of the actions taken by the Trump administration. They are distressed about the war in Iran, ICE raids and this administration’s general contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law. I’ve also heard a lot of concern about the very high cost of healthcare, prescription drugs and housing and the need to keep Social Security and Medicare strong and solvent into the future. A number of seniors also expressed their worries about the rapid development of artificial intelligence and robotics, and the way those new technologies could affect our kids, our economy and our privacy.