Republicans Are Lost in the AI Wilderness

Bipartisan backlash against AI gives Democrats politically useful options ahead of midterms. Opposition to data centers can be emphasized, especially in states where the issue has become divisive. AI can be framed as a labor issue to align with unions and white-collar workers. Big-tech leaders are positioned as villains, portrayed as extremely wealthy and hostile or dismissive toward society. Their association with an unpopular president and anti-regulatory policies strengthens the contrast. Democratic policy proposals remain vague, leaving room for mistakes. Still, messaging that highlights local harms, such as data-center pollution, can be effective. Republicans face a harder challenge because they are incumbents and already associated with AI backlash.

"Going into the midterms, the bipartisan backlash against AI gives Democrats a number of politically attractive options. They can try to tap into the growing opposition to data centers, particularly in states where the issue has become suddenly and massively divisive. They can talk about AI as a labor issue, reestablishing a common cause with unions and newer members of the white-collar precariat."

"Big-tech leaders, having shed much of their opportunistic Obama-era liberalism and put on MAGA hats instead, have offered themselves up as villains: impossibly wealthy, individually either aloof or openly menacing, and obsessed and/or amused by a technology they frequently suggest could blow apart society if it doesn't do something worse."

"It would be an overstatement to say Democratic politicians have developed a thorough or coherent approach to the many policy questions surrounding AI, and their affirmative visions are pretty vague. There's plenty of room and precedent for the Democratic Caucus to fuck up here in both material and political ways. For now, though, as an out-of-power party in need of a message, holding up a jar of brown water collected from a tap polluted by Meta data-center construction in Georgia, as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently did, will go a long way."

"More reluctant politicians can get away with saying, Yeah, we're worried about AI too, we are going to do something about it, and all that bad stuff you've been hearing about jobs and electricity prices, well, the Republicans helped make that happen, and we'll do something different. Republicans are in a tougher position, which is why a bunch of emerging conservative factions is gearing up for a fight. As national incumbents, Republicans substantially own the AI backla"

Read at nymag.com