AI optimism collides with public fear
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Silicon Valley confidence and Washington anxiety clashed at Axios' AI+DC Summit on Wednesday.
Why it matters: The AI industry says this technology will create new jobs, boost productivity and transform daily life for the better. But Americans are worried about their kids, their power bills and their livelihoods.
The big picture: The summit revealed wildly different opinions from industry leaders and lawmakers from the left and the right.
Meta president Dina Powell McCormick framed AI as a "transformation of humanity."
- McCormick called AI an "equalizer" — a "mostly affordable" tool that could lead to the "democratization of a lot of these industries and potential jobs."
- She urged rival companies to cooperate on shared "core values" around safety.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) pointed to recent data showing that AI was more unpopular with Americans than ICE, but also said a moratorium on new data centers — like the one proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — was "idiocy."
- Warner said AI makers can be a positive force in the world, but they need to empathize with how Americans feel about the tech encroaching on their lives.
- "When I think about many of the AI big heads that are brilliantly smart, empathetic is not the first word that comes to mind," he said.
- If they don't recognize how their tech is impacting people, "they're going to get blown away by both the left and the right's pitchforks coming after them because this is scaring them."
White House science and tech adviser Michael Kratsios insisted the Trump administration can be bullish on AI innovation and still address public fears.
- But when pressed on jobs, child safety and rising costs, Kratsios repeatedly pointed to Trump's pledge to protect consumers from higher energy costs rather than offering new specifics on AI guardrails.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) focused on AI's harms — to children and to the communities disproportionately affected by AI data centers.
- "Our message to the companies has got to be no amount of profit justifies destroying children's lives," Hawley said.
- On data centers, Hawley said "we will be punished" if lawmakers allow tech companies to "run roughshod over voters" by not requiring them to take any action to address concerns.
