The public is entitled to a share of these companies, but not like this. This is just corruption. A bribe. A backroom quid prop quo deal. Taxes aren’t voluntary. And they aren’t case by case. Time to tax large AI firms with a payment made in stock.

This week on the Stanford Legal Podcast, @polcz.bsky.social and I discuss how large AI firms should pay a tax with stock, not just cash. Check it out! law.stanford.edu/stanford-leg...

Jeremy Bearer-Friend and I spoke with The Information about collaborating on our AI equity tax idea and the bill it inspired, introduced last week by Sen. Sanders. Ignore the title: it's every bit as much Prof. Bearer-Friend's brainchild. We're thrilled to see all the conversations it is starting!

And now the AI Tax has been introduced in the United States Senate by @sanders.senate.gov. What a day. Full 38 page legislative text and bill summary below. www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releas...

The power of a good idea

My AI tax proposal with @polcz.bsky.social is starting to feel inevitable…

Taxation as freedom from Aristocracy!

Great coverage of AI Tax options, leading with @sanders.senate.gov' plan for an AI Equity Tax to make the public co-owners of AI, based on the "Sharing the Algorithm" Columbia Journal of Tax Law article I wrote with @bearerfriend.bsky.social nytimes.com/2026/06/13/b...

Good digest of our recent AI tax work if want to see all one place taxprofblog.aals.org/2026/06/09/b...

people who work and invest in AI frequently ask me why their work polls so badly

I'm not just a tax professor. I also play one on TV. youtu.be/2mDEqasSUvI

Wow! @sanders.senate.gov .senate.gov sure liked our article on how to tax AI! He took my proposal with Prof @bearerfriend.bsky.social to the max (Bernie being Bernie…) but he meets the moment: the idea is AI companies should pay a tax with stock, not just cash. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/o...

Not to brag, but… my proposal with @polcz.bsky.social to tax AI perfectly meets the moment here. Systemically important AI firms should pay a tax with equity so the public co-owns them. I can totally see the Right and the Left agreeing on this.

Wow even the Economist endorses our AI tax proposal! A tax paid with stock, not cash, starting to feel inevitable. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

Know any lawmakers looking to tax AI? We’ve got a proposal for them. "Our AI tax would give the public fractional ownership, alongside private investors, in large AI firms." Full op-ed here: thehill.com/opinion/tech...

Know any congressmen looking to tax AI? We’ve got a proposal for them. “Our AI tax would give the public fractional ownership, alongside private investors, in large AI firms.” Full op-ed here: thehill.com/opinion/tech...

Absolutely incredible. NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman, who commanded Artemis II, took this footage from the far side of the Moon with his iPhone. Watch with sound on.

First was a compelling conversation with @bearerfriend.bsky.social and @polcz.bsky.social on using tax policy to mitigate and compensate for generative AI societal-level harms on the @busscholarship.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3td... (2/5)

We propose a framework for partial public ownership of AI via an AI equity tax. Thanks to Forbes @Forbes and Tax Notes @TaxNotes for the coverage. Find the TLDR overview of our (with @bearerfriend.bsky.social) args here: www.forbes.com/sites/taxnot...

This morning's podcast is out already! We discuss our proposed framework for fractional public ownership of AI -- an AI equity tax -- fielding the questions that need to be asked from @brianlfrye

Good news from the Supreme Court for a change: The Sony Betamax case lives! The Supreme Court refuses to expand the scope of secondary copyright liability beyond the bounds set in Grokster (inducement) and Sony (contributory infringement). www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

SCOTUS struck down the Trump tariffs, in part based on the major questions argument we made in our amicus brief! www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

In 2 hours: Olivia Jackson, the inaugural General Counsel of Meta's Oversight Board, will speak about free speech judgment calls and platform governance in the AI age. Thrilled to welcome her at @ucdavislawcils.bsky.social @ucdavislaw.bsky.social Livestream link below

How to make hard speech decisions in an AI Age — we're excited to host Olivia Jackson, the inaugural General Counsel of Meta's Oversight Board. Thursday Feb. 5 from 12pm-1pm. This talk will be livestreamed @ucdavislawcils.bsky.social

Epidemic Sounds files a second copyright lawsuit vs. Meta. The first one is still ongoing. Epidemic Sounds claims Meta offers 50,000 of its works through the "Audio Library" without authorization. Plaintiff owns rights to the sound recordings and compositions. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

In NYC on Nov 16? Go see Yann LeCun @yann-lecun.bsky.social debate Adam Brown 🥰 on the boundaries of current machine learning, human understanding, and the tantalizing possibility of machine consciousness. 7pm @pioneerwork.bsky.social pioneerworks.org/programs/sci...

After many years in the making, a draft of our article "Sharing the Algorithm" is now available for download. Forthcoming in @columbiauniversity.bsky.social Journal of Tax Law, Prof Sarah Polcz & I argue the public should co-own generative artificial intelligence papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The crash is going to be brutal when it comes. Robinhood says "it might offer "tokenized" equity in OpenAI. By "tokenized," Business Insider reports, Robinhood means "blockchain-enabled representations of securities like stocks." In reality, they have no connection to OpenAI equity whatsoever."

This quote belongs on page one of every legal brief filed against this administration.

First court ruling on fair use of AI training -- training on copyrighted works is fair use, but obtaining the works from a pirated website is separately a violation N.B. I represent Anthropic in this matter drive.google.com/file/d/13jHL...

Reminder that words matter. You can’t “deport” a US citizen. You might be kidnapping, disappearing, exiling, expelling, illegally removing, etc., but you’re not “deporting” a US citizen.

I agree that generative AI firms, like OpenAi, should be accountable to humanity. This is why @polcz.bsky.social and I advocate for fractional public ownership of AGI. Our common humanity was harvested by these machines and we are each entitled to a share of it. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

What is so hard to understand about this???

Next Tuesday I'll be speaking about Copyright's creative incentives and collaboration in the music industry at the University of Sydney Law School, also hosted by the Centre for AI, Trust and Governance, and @admscentre.org.au www.eventbrite.com.au/e/loyalties-...

Not sure if I count as optimistic, but here’s the thumbnail of how to share the productivity gains (potentially) created by generative AI that my coauthor @polcz.bsky.social and I presented at Columbia a few weeks ago papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

this is an excellent suggestion

Thank you to @columbiauniversity.bsky.social Law School for hosting me and @polcz.bsky.social today! We’ll be presenting our research on how many of the harms of generative AI can be addressed through fractional public ownership of AI. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Not gonna lie. Still get a thrill every time I'm on TaxProfBlog. And this time with two friends! @polcz.bsky.social @davidgamage.bsky.social . taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog...

Today's the day! Co-presenting my work in progress on how to tax AI with @polcz.bsky.social at Mizzou! Fractional public ownership of generative AI is both doable and necessary. More details here papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

A fav thing about being a professor is when people I don't know somehow encounter my ideas and cite them. A team of scholars and activists in Canada who are working to finance renewable energy projects for indigenous communities just cited my reparations research! Solidarity across borders.

On Wednesday, February 19th, Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington Law) & Sarah Polcz (UC-Davis Law) will present their draft paper – "Sharing the Algorithm: The Tax Solution to A.I." – at the Mizzou Law Tax Policy Colloquium, from 2:00 to 3:15 pm Central Time. 1/

@ucdavis.bsky.social Law Professor @polcz.bsky.social and Professor @bearerfriend.bsky.social (George Washington University Law School) are presenting at the Section on Securities Regulation’s panel about AI and big data. 💻 @theaals.bsky.social #AALS2025 #UCDavisLaw