

The political skirmish over Trump’s AI order is just the beginning
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—In one of the first big political tests of AI, Big Tech won. But the fight has given new signals of populist opposition to technology that holds the promise of eliminating lots of jobs.
The weekslong maneuvering ended in the Oval Office this past week, with President Trump signing an executive order aimed at limiting states from implementing laws that tech companies worry will slow development of artificial intelligence. The measure had drawn unusually vocal opposition from Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Steve Bannon, who holds great sway among the MAGA part of the Republican Party.
And it isn’t just conservative populists raising concerns about tech titans winning a much-wanted policy fight. At the other extreme, liberals, too, are increasingly asking pointed questions about what the technology might mean. “Is the goal of the AI revolution simply to make the very, very richest people on earth even richer and even more powerful?" Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in a lengthy video message released recently. Sanders has been raising a long list of worries—such as what happens if millions of jobs are eliminated—that a few years ago would have sounded far-fetched, if not for the fact that he was quoting public predictions being made by the likes of Elon Musk and other tech bros who have said workers will be replaced by AI and robots. To illustrate how quickly things are moving: The architect of Trump’s AI order was the tech investor David Sacks, who had originally tried to get DeSantis elected president.
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