Discussion on AI and Economic Inequality Amidst Political Changes (Part 2)

Democrats. And you can see why. I mean, the serious levels of inequality that have grown up in the US with some of the world's richest men, Elon Musk, as you say, and Jeff Bezos having ridden this wave of investment in the tech sector. But I think that there's more to it than that. I think it's too simplistic just to sort of blame the Democrats and to be concerned about them derailing the AI story, because I think there has been a groundswell of public opposition to AI and some acknowledgment, judgment from AI linked company executives themselves, that development needs to be checked. You know, a majority of Americans are against the development of data centers in their local community. And most Americans, opinion polls show, are concerned about the threat that AI poses to society. So I think that there is, there's a couple of things going on here. Perhaps some degree of check on reality was, was probably required before the midterms, but this has been undoubtedly one of the triggers for this sell off. Yes, it's perhaps new concerns or more widespread concerns about the technology itself, but also that economic inequality, as you say, the dissonance between Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire whilst most ordinary Americans are struggling to fill up their cars at the petrol pump, that isn't sitting well. I would really recommend an episode of our sister podcast, Stateside with Karen Carter, that asks whether Elon Musk was in fact the biggest loser of the midterms, which is a really great listen. But I mean, as you also indicated, Democrats aren't going to kind of completely walk away from AI altogether. There are enormous capacities for growth still. It seems unlikely that there will be a total swing away. Right. And there's been some indications about that from Democrats, definitely. I mean, if you are to completely halt AI in its tracks, you are sort of stopping one of the greatest potential technologies for job creation and for economic growth and the raising of living standards. I mean, we've been through a deep period of economic stagnation since the 2008 financial crisis. And then along comes this universal purpose technology that presents us with an opportunity to really change things up and to have a revival in living standards. So I think that it's about pragmatism that we're going to see from political leaders. There is desire.