AI Summary
5 min readFear-jerker: America’s AI backlash
In a Democratic primary in New York this year, a former computer scientist named Alex Borris campaigned on tighter guardrails for AI firms. He had passed what he called “the strongest AI safety bill in the country,” the RAISE Act. Political action committees backed by big AI companies spent millions trying to defeat him. Other AI firms spent millions trying to support him, because they thought their industry needed better regulation. Borris lost—but his opponent, a conventional candidate, also came out on election night saying he would campaign to regulate AI companies more strictly. The episode captures how AI has become a politically explosive issue in America, and one that cuts across party lines.
The asymmetry of fear
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:18) **Introduction: AI as a Political Flashpoint** - Host Rosie introduces the episode's central thesis: AI is becoming a politically explosive issue in America, illustrated by a New York Democratic primary where AI regulation was the defining topic.
- 2 (03:02) **The Bipartisan Fear of AI** - Robert Guest explains that Americans across the political spectrum share the same core anxieties about AI, unlike most other issues.
- 3 (04:10) **America's Unique Pessimism** - A Pew poll shows Americans are more pessimistic about AI than people in 24 other countries, driven by specific fears.
- 4 (05:00) **Left vs. Right: Shared Anxieties, Different Targets** - Both sides fear the tech elite, but the left focuses on inequality and billionaires, while the right distrusts the "Californian tech elite."
- 5 (06:27) **The Data Center Backlash** - Opposition to data centers goes beyond NIMBYism; many Americans oppose them being built anywhere, seeing them as a visible symbol of unwanted rapid change.
- 6 (07:36) **Political Responses to AI Anxiety** - Politicians face a difficult task in appeasing voters, but one area of potential action is redistributing the gains of AI.
- 7 (10:03) **Segment Transition: China's Censored Divorce** - The episode shifts to a story about Chinese censors cutting the phrase "I want a divorce" from a film, highlighting the government's pro-marriage stance.
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Show Notes
Americans are becoming more anxious about how artificial intelligence will affect jobs, society and even human existence. Republican and Democrat voters are unusually united in their concerns. Divorce rates are rising in China and the Communist party cannot stop them. And the politics of air-conditioning in a scorching Europe.
Guests and host:
- Robert Guest, Economist deputy editor
- Sarah Wu, China correspondent
- Lane Greene, senior digital editor
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Artificial intelligence, midterms, Alex Bores
- Divorce, China, fertility
- Heatwaves, Europe, air-conditioning
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