Trump’s AI Embrace Alarms Populists: MAGA vs. Big Tech
▼ Summary
– Melania Trump praised AI as potentially the greatest engine of progress in U.S. history during a White House event with tech executives.
– Senator Josh Hawley warned that AI threatens liberty and could undermine the Republic by entrenching the power of the most powerful.
– Hawley argued that AI risks replacing workers like farmers, assembly line workers, and construction workers.
– His views are gaining support among conservatives, despite the Trump administration’s push to accelerate AI adoption.
– Attendees at the National Conservatism Conference expressed concerns about AI’s impact on unemployment, families, culture, and education.
Flanked by influential leaders from Silicon Valley during a recent White House gathering, Melania Trump praised artificial intelligence, describing its potential as perhaps the most significant driver of progress in American history. Her optimistic outlook stood in stark contrast to the tone struck just a short distance away.
At a nearby hotel ballroom filled with enthusiastic supporters of the MAGA movement, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri delivered a far more cautionary message. He warned that artificial intelligence poses a direct threat to individual liberty and could even jeopardize the foundations of the Republic. Hawley expressed concern that the ongoing AI revolution primarily serves to consolidate the influence of those already holding immense power, potentially displacing workers in agriculture, manufacturing, and construction.
Though known for his skepticism toward major technology firms, Hawley’s perspective is gaining traction among conservatives across the country. This growing unease emerges even as the Trump administration actively removes regulatory obstacles and encourages the rapid integration of AI technologies nationwide.
The tension signals a deepening ideological rift within the MAGA coalition itself. At the recent National Conservatism Conference, a key gathering for the movement’s thought leaders, strong skepticism toward AI was widespread among evangelical pastors, political strategists, and scholars.
Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, a speaker at the event, noted that many are deeply concerned about the social and economic consequences of advanced AI, from rising unemployment and family instability to broader cultural and educational shifts, even before the emergence of artificial superintelligence becomes a reality.
(Source: Ars Technica)
