The AI Panic Comes to Washington

Okay, so you had a really great column this week, which was a joy to read amid all the panic, entitled The AI Luddites Are Here.

And before we actually talk about artificial intelligence itself, can you actually just give viewers a little history lesson on where we actually get that term Luddite, the actual story of Ned Ludd? Because I think some people might have heard that word, but they don't really know where it comes from and how fitting it is for this discussion.

Sure, sure.

Well, Ned Ludd was a 18th century factory worker back when things were very manual.

And he got fed up one day and broke a few things.

But then years later, workers got even more annoyed when they started automating, making of socks and other things.

And so they called him General Ludd.

He turned into like a fabled person.

And they went in and they started destroying these stocking frames, which are how you make socks, burn factories.

And so the term Luddite really comes from those that think that technology is going to destroy jobs.

Of course, the Industrial Revolution created way more jobs than it destroyed.

But, you know, that's no one likes to think about that.

Yeah.

So, I mean, essentially, it describes a reaction whenever there's something new, dramatic that threatens to, you know, overturn things.

And that can be a little bit scary.

One of the things I think is getting missed in this debate is there's actually a lot of different issues and fears that are colliding here.

And you kind of go into some of those, isolate them in your column.

I want to go through them.

Let's just actually start with this.

So, Tell people why at this sort of peak AI pandemonium, why you think this whole era is manageable and not necessarily worth losing our minds over, or at least not yet.

There is a hysteria, right? The sky is falling.

It happens every time, right? The guy who left Anthropic said AI could kill us all.

You know, that's about as extreme as you can get.

I mean, it's a great issue.

You've seen Democrats jump on it and say, you know, let's get rid of data centers.

Okay, so you had a really great column this week, which was a joy to read amid all the panic, entitled The AI Luddites Are Here.

And before we actually talk about artificial intelligence itself, can you actually just give viewers a little history lesson on where we actually get that term Luddite, the actual story of Ned Ludd? Because I think some people might have heard that word, but they don't really know where it comes from and how fitting it is for this discussion.

Sure, sure.

Well, Ned Ludd was a 18th century factory worker back when things were very manual.

And he got fed up one day and broke a few things.

But then years later, workers got even more annoyed when they started automating, making of socks and other things.

And so they called him General Ludd.

He turned into like a fabled person.

And they went in and they started destroying these stocking frames, which are how you make socks, burn factories.

And so the term Luddite really comes from those that think that technology is going to destroy jobs.

Of course, the Industrial Revolution created way more jobs than it destroyed.

But, you know, that's no one likes to think about that.

Yeah.

So, I mean, essentially, it describes a reaction whenever there's something new, dramatic that threatens to, you know, overturn things.

And that can be a little bit scary.

One of the things I think is getting missed in this debate is there's actually a lot of different issues and fears that are colliding here.

And you kind of go into some of those, isolate them in your column.

I want to go through them.

Let's just actually start with this.

So, Tell people why at this sort of peak AI pandemonium, why you think this whole era is manageable and not necessarily worth losing our minds over, or at least not yet.

There is a hysteria, right? The sky is falling.

It happens every time, right? The guy who left Anthropic said AI could kill us all.

You know, that's about as extreme as you can get.

I mean, it's a great issue.

You've seen Democrats jump on it and say, you know, let's get rid of data centers.