How the U.S. Can Win The AI Race: ALEC Policy Leaders on Just the News – No Noise
At the 53rd ALEC Annual Meeting in Orlando, John Solomon of Just the News – No Noise sat down with NetChoice President and CEO Steve DelBianco, Unleash Prosperity Chairman and Co-Founder Stephen Moore, and ALEC Senior Director of Policy Jake Morabito to discuss the policy debates, misconceptions, and actions being taken across the states on data centers and the AI revolution.
DelBianco addressed the recent backlash, attributing it to political and technological anxieties, and highlighted the importance of addressing misinformation and educating the public about the positive impacts of data centers.
“Well-meaning Americans who want us to win, who want us to beat China, are scared about AI’s impact on their families and their jobs,” he emphasized.
“Anxiety accompanies a lot of new technological revolutions. We saw it 20 years ago when fracking and shale gas came around. Anxiety over something new, but this time, it’s truly a deeply held anxiety, and it makes them susceptible to disinformation.”
In a later segment, Economist Stephen Moore emphasized the importance of winning the AI race to maintain American economic and technological leadership.
“We’re winning. You know, just like we were winning the internet race, and we blew away the rest of the world,” Moore highlighted. “Nine of the top ten internet companies are based here in the USA. So, every other country is so envious that we totally dominated that.”
Additionally, he discussed the potential benefits of AI, including increased productivity and new job opportunities.
“One of the points I made at this ALEC conference is: AI is coming. Data centers are already here,” he explained. “We have people who don’t even realize we have hundreds and hundreds of data centers throughout the country. People say, ‘I don’t like the data. No AI.’ I’m like, ‘Do you like this? Because you can’t live without this, right? Well, guess what? This doesn’t work if you don’t have data centers.'”
In one of the final segments of the episode, Jake Morabito, ALEC Senior Director of Policy, addressed energy affordability and environmental concerns.
“Even though it’s been proven for decades that these facilities have existed, they haven’t resulted in exorbitant electricity prices. We have functional water in Northern Virginia, but yeah, lots of communities have very valid questions… I think the industry has its work cut out for it to meaningfully address those concerns and demonstrate the positive benefits that you were talking about.”
He highlighted the role of state legislators in promoting policies that support AI and data centers.
“States are the laboratories of democracy. You have New York just enacting a data center moratorium for a year. Other states like Oklahoma, Texas, and others are, again, more welcoming, and that doesn’t mean that it’s, you know, carte blanche to just do whatever they want. So, we’ll see how it pans out.”