The breakneck pace of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is creating unbearable strain on America’s delicate energy infrastructure. This uncharted territory is creating alarming precedence panic amongst both the technocrats and policymakers. Huge new data centers are already under construction to further supercharge these AI technologies. This increased demand for electricity is exacerbating existing capacity shortfalls and leading to imminent widespread blackouts. An understanding that lawmakers are going to need to unravel AI’s double-edged complexity. Some caution that the stakes in this ongoing debate are far greater than past battles over internet regulation. As Representative Ro Khanna warns in our National Town Hall on AI, a handful of powerful corporations managing AI might benefit while evading responsibility to the public interest.
The convergence of technological innovation and infrastructure atrophy presents an unprecedented moment for the United States. This is the third warning from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in a row. Specifically, they call attention to the increasing danger of capacity deficits nationwide. The pattern of these warnings is evidence of the growing risk of blackouts. Things get even worse because AI data centers use insane amounts of energy.
The problem is that even before the AI surge, America’s energy grid was already slipping into disrepair. Successive reports during the last few years from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a grid watchdog, have warned that more and more of the U.S. is in danger of capacity shortfalls. That may sound like jargon, but what it means is a higher potential for blackouts like the ones we saw in Europe last month. - Emmet Penney
The campaign to regulate AI is gaining momentum. Americans are more concerned than ever about the impact of AI on jobs, social media algorithms and a host of other everyday life concerns. Representative Khanna emphasized the broad implications of AI, suggesting that its influence will extend far beyond the internet.
It’s not just going to impact the structure of the internet, it’s going to impact people’s jobs. It’s going to impact the role algorithms can play in social media. It’s going to impact every part of our lives, and it’s going to allow a few people [who] control AI to profit, without accountability to the public good, to the American public. - Rep. Ro Khanna
Yet efforts to achieve widespread, substantive AI regulation at the state level would be met with daunting challenges. A provision in the new budget package seeks to ban state AI laws for a decade, potentially centralizing control over AI policy at the federal level. This has opened a national conversation about what is the right balance between promoting innovation and ensuring public accountability.
As excitement continues to grow around AI’s promise, there are some who are trying to bring a bit more reality into the conversation. As Matthew Crawford points out, new technology rarely offers real solutions — it simply adds more layers of complexity. Similarly, perspectives on identity and values are being re-evaluated in light of rapid technological and social changes.
Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents a district that previously supported Donald Trump, offers a unique perspective on these issues. National media outlets still like to label Gluesenkamp Perez a ‘moderate’ or ‘centrist.’ Her take is undeniably rooted in practical skills, not only ownership and repair work but the trades and infrastructure. Her emphasis on real-world solutions and attention to community needs cuts against a grain of more esoteric ideological battles. Gluesenkamp Perez credits Wendell Berry as an important inspiration—underscoring her devotion to the rooted, small-d democrat ethos.
Ever since Gluesenkamp Perez’s 2022 upset, national outlets have leaned on familiar labels to characterize her—‘moderate,’ ‘centrist’—as if her win in a Trump district could only be explained by ideological triangulation. But Gluesenkamp Perez isn’t splitting the difference between two poles so much as she is working from a different starting point, centered on repair, ownership, and trade work. - Evelyn Quartz
The debate around AI touches on broader questions about human values and the nature of progress. Tyler Austin Harper argues that AI is being marketed as something it is not: a new form of thinking and feeling machines. Above all, he recommends a far more clear-eyed view of AI’s potential and its constraints. Generative AI is not the magic bullet that will solve all of our problems.
The changing technological landscape requires a thoughtful balance as we move forward. We need to uphold the promise of AI while acknowledging its limitations in the real world. AI is changing every day. In order to ensure a sustainable, equitable future, we need to address the infrastructure constraints and regulatory issues that come up.
