4 spicy quotes from Rep. Ro Khanna on the rise of AI
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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) talked about "woke AI," supporting young workers anxious about AI-driven job displacement, and creating more guardrails around the tech at the Axios AI+ DC Summit on Wednesday.
Why it matters: Khanna's district is in Silicon Valley, where he's getting a front-row seat to the generative AI boom unfolding in real time.
On AI regulation
Khanna says AI needs more guardrails, in conversation with senior tech policy reporter Ashley Gold.
- "The challenge has not been over regulation. The challenge has been, actually, we have no regulation."
- "How can we just give the tech companies totally carte blanche to do whatever they want? We need basic safety regulations."
- "Look, I am optimistic about AI's ability to help solve disease, to help improve education and also produce things."
- "But just like electricity — just like any technology — it has to be done with safeguards and regulations, and it has to be done in a way that it doesn't to deeply exacerbate the economic divides of this country."
An AI academy
The government needs to step in to increase jobs for young people in the age of AI, Khanna said.
- "I believe we need a future workforce administration to hire from schools across the country... an AI Academy....it needs to be a government agency, putting them to work for a few years so their skills don't atrophy."
On Jeffrey Epstein
The Jeffrey Epstein saga has consumed D.C. this summer, and members of Congress have been pressuring the Trump administration to release more information in the case. Khanna said he hopes AI becomes a bigger political issue during election seasons.
- "No one asked me about jobs and AI [in 2024]. We've got to, as a country, start to talk about the real impact it's going to have. On our speech. On jobs. On democracy."
- "There wasn't a single AI question asked about AI in 2024," Khanna said.
- "The only thing they ask me about is Epstein these days."
Woke AI
Gold asked Khanna about the executive order to bar "woke" AI from receiving federal funding.
- "That's like a 'Saturday Night' skit. Like how could AI be woke? I mean, who thinks of these things? Did Grok think of that? ... I'd respond if it wasn't so stupid."
- "I'll comply with woke AI if we can have vaccines. ... Just have some science in the administration, and we'll deal with woke AI."
