Democrats losing AI conversation, lack economic transformation vision

Democrats in Washington are losing the AI ​​debate. Not because they are wrong about the risks of artificial intelligence, but because they fail to offer Americans a vision for the economic transformation ahead. While they focus on managing problems, others define what happens next. While one side talks about building the future, the other side talks about restricting it.

In November, at Nvidia’s GTC conference in Washington, hundreds of technologists and business leaders celebrated a great American success story: Jensen Huang and the company he founded. Speakers praised President Donald Trump for his administration’s approach to artificial intelligence. Most viewers saw an administration that broke down barriers, enabled scale, increased America’s competitiveness.

This should be a wake-up call for Democrats who have so far failed to seize the opportunity to talk not only about the risks of AI, but also about its potential for broad economic transformation. Democrats have asked many questions about AI’s safety, biases and impact on the job market.

But so far, Democrats have treated these as separate issues to be managed, rather than seeing them as parts of a larger problem: How can we shape this transformation to create opportunity for all, not just profit for the few? This is the conversation Americans deserve.

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The consensus of elites in Washington focuses on a single goal: optimizing America’s AI capabilities as a whole. A recent State Department article penned by former Biden administration officials discusses the “grand bargain” between government and industry: more infrastructure and capacity for big companies. Workers, communities and start-ups across the border are afterthoughts. Build first, assume prosperity will flow later. It’s a familiar strategy that hasn’t worked before. Republicans also mostly embrace this framework, but Republican populists are astutely aware of its shortcomings.

What this means going forward: Big corporations are in position to capture trillions. Worker displacement is a problem to be solved later. Communities provide land, energy and water without guaranteeing that they will share in the prosperity. The Biden administration’s 2023 executive order was broad on safety testing but said little about welfare, workers or communities.

Past waves of automation have left communities hollowed out and workers left without a path forward. Innovation rarely delivers opportunities without deliberate efforts to strengthen workers, communities, and local economies.

Recent surveys in swing states show declining AI sentiment as workers attribute the technology to job insecurity. We all lose. Not to China, but to ourselves. Skepticism cuts across ideological lines. On the far right, Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon warned earlier this year that entry-level jobs would disappear. On the far left, Democratic Socialists see AI as another tool of corporate power. Both answers rule out the possibility that AI might distribute opportunity rather than concentrate wealth.

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An alternative vision could optimize the flourishing of American Davids—our employees, our families, and our innovative startups. The long-term success of large companies also depends on this foundation. It’s not about slowing down. Capital moves quickly no matter what. The question is whether to structure this rapid deployment to enable widely shared prosperity or concentrated extraction. Aimless speed creates political backlash that actually threatens progress. Deliberate pace creates sustainable progress.

We’ve done this before. Land-grant universities gave communities a stake in research and education. Rural electrification cooperatives provided farmers not only access but also ownership. The GI Bill provided veterans with not only short-term compensation but the ability to build fulfilling careers. The Alaska Permanent Fund distributes dividends from oil extraction on public lands to each resident.

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Now imagine: National block grants allow governments to create public computing for startups and regional economies. Worker transition funds are under workers’ control, not the programs they endure. When companies profit from public infrastructure, equity stakes give communities ownership of their future. Third-party assurance marketplaces to accelerate responsible innovation at scale. These are ideas that will stimulate discussion with the American people. This moment calls for a national project worthy of American ingenuity.

Democrats have a long history of this way of thinking. Rural electrification and railway policy provided broad reach. Today, Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly‘s proposal for “AI for America” ​​represents a larger vision we need to discuss.

Democrats now have the opportunity to take an alternative path and present our country with a national project that centers artificial intelligence advances as the critical innovation for a prosperous, healthy, and secure future for all Americans.

Aimless speed creates political backlash that actually threatens progress. Deliberate pace creates sustainable progress. New technology is good on its own. But it gets even better when paired with policy and market approaches that emphasize economic security, opportunity, and the dignity of the American people.

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Democrats are flat-footed. Anxiety is growing among populists on the right and left. The pressing question now is whether either party will challenge the elite consensus that treats the effects of economic transformation on workers, communities, and start-ups as imaginary or problems to be solved later.

This moment requires a vision that takes into account all Americans, our workers, our communities, and especially startup entrepreneurs.