Silicon Valley legislator Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) calls for a more thoughtful approach to ushering in the AI revolution, in an op-ed for the New York Times. While it is important to foster AI-led innovation and compete with the rest of the world, Khanna’s piece centers the experiences of American people who might lose their livelihood to AI.
To illustrate his point, Khanna draws upon a similar time in the 1990s and 2000s, when U.S. lawmakers and global leaders propounded the merits of globalization. While globalization promised to create jobs and make consumer goods cheaper, it ended up shuttering industries in the U.S. while creating wealth and opportunity for select groups – such as the tech titans of Silicon Valley – exacerbating income inequality.
He voices fears that a similar process could set in again if we adopt AI without considering its impacts on professional groups like truckers and writers, who have already expressed their concerns.
“The Democratic Party cannot claim to be the party of the working class if we allow AI to erode the earnings and security of the working class. The party can be forgiven once for the mistake of abetting globalization to run amok, just not twice.” he wrote.
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