The Pulse
Mark Kelly Proposes Big Tech Fund for AI-Displaced Workers
Senator Mark Kelly announces the Make AI Work for Americans Act, which would require major technology companies to help finance an AI Horizon Fund for workers affected by workplace automation. Kelly says 80% of Americans support AI regulati
AI.info Team ·
Kelly puts an 80% figure behind a new AI labor bill
Senator Mark Kelly says 80% of Americans want the federal government to regulate artificial intelligence. He used that figure on September 22, 2026, to announce the Make AI Work for Americans Act, a proposal that would require major technology companies to help finance an AI Horizon Fund for workers affected by changes in the labor market.
Kelly announced the bill during a speech on the Senate floor, where he argued that companies building large AI systems are benefiting from research, knowledge and work created across the economy. His proposal would direct some of that wealth toward American workers, although the announcement does not provide a tax rate, funding target, eligibility rules or a timetable for distributing money from the proposed fund.
“I’m introducing The Make AI Work for Americans Act to make sure workers aren’t left behind, and that Big Tech pays their fair share,” Kelly said. “These companies are getting rich off of a technology trained on the wealth of humanity’s research, knowledge, and work. Our ideas and discoveries. My bill would require them to give some of that wealth back to us by investing in the American worker through an AI Horizon Fund.”
An AI fund without a published price tag
The measure’s central idea is simple: technology companies that capture value from AI should help pay for the economic disruption associated with it. Kelly’s release does not yet describe how the government would define the companies covered by the bill, how contributions would be calculated or which agency would administer the AI Horizon Fund.
Those omissions matter because the proposal is presented as a response to several different labor concerns. Kelly refers to workers whose jobs may be automated, families worried about future careers and communities dealing with the effects of large-scale technology infrastructure. The announcement groups those concerns under a single call for federal guardrails but does not attach a separate program or funding amount to each one.
The bill arrives after Kelly has made workforce measurement a separate legislative priority. In June, he joined Republican senators Jim Banks of Indiana and Todd Young of Indiana to introduce the Artificial Intelligence Data Authorization and Transparency Act, or AI DATA Act. That bill would expand federal labor-market data collection, require quarterly questions about AI adoption in the Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey for 10 years, and require an annual report from the Labor and Commerce departments on AI’s effect on the workforce.
The earlier AI DATA Act is a measurement bill. The Make AI Work for Americans Act, as described by Kelly, would create a financing mechanism for worker support. Neither announcement establishes that AI has already caused a specific level of job loss; both address the difficulty of understanding and responding to changes that may spread across occupations and industries.
Kelly frames AI as a national emergency
Kelly used his experience as the last person to sit in the commander’s seat of Space Shuttle Endeavour to describe the urgency he sees in the current debate. He compared the moment to sitting atop four and a half million pounds of fuel while alarms sound and systems fail.
“These last few weeks—as engineers, researchers, and CEOs have all been shouting about AI becoming a threat to humanity’s very survival—I feel like I’m back in that seat, with the Master Alarm blaring and systems failing. And nobody is steering the ship.”
Mark Kelly, U.S. senator from Arizona
His remarks link labor policy to the wider argument over AI safety and oversight. Kelly says Republicans, Democrats and independents all want action, along with technology workers, communities concerned about data centers and families anxious about employment. The 80% figure appears in Kelly’s speech as his characterization of public support for regulation; the Senate release does not identify the survey behind it.
The next test is legislative detail
Kelly’s announcement establishes the political principle behind the bill but leaves the mechanics open. The release does not say whether the AI Horizon Fund would provide wage insurance, retraining grants, direct payments, education support or some combination of programs. It also does not identify any Republican co-sponsors for the new measure.
That makes the proposal an opening position rather than a fully described worker-support system. Kelly’s earlier AI DATA Act has named bipartisan sponsors and a specific set of data requirements. The new bill’s public case currently rests on the fund’s purpose: making companies that profit from AI contribute to the workers and communities affected by its adoption.
“The alarms are sounding. The signals are clear. No one else is coming to the rescue,” Kelly said on the Senate floor. “Mr. President, it has to be us.” The bill’s impact will depend on the text that follows, including the amount companies would pay, who would qualify for assistance and whether Congress accepts Kelly’s premise that AI firms should finance part of the labor response.