Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Monday evening that he suspects China is helping fund opposition to American artificial intelligence data centers, warning that the United States cannot afford to hand Beijing a win in the race for AI dominance.
Johnson made the comments during a Breitbart News Fight Club Roundtable hosted by Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
“I would hate to see China win the war on AI. Again, I don’t have the specifics on this. I have a sense that China is funding the opposition to AI centers,” Johnson said.
He said the country still needs to weigh real infrastructure concerns, but argued the scale of the pushback doesn’t match the facts.
“Now, at the same time, I think we need to be responsible. We need to look at the demands on the electrical grid. I think demands on water resources are way overstated, but overstated because China is funding the propaganda against these things,” Johnson said.
Johnson said Americans need to understand what’s driving the opposition before they let it slow the country down.
“We need to expose that fact, and then we need the American public to open up their eyes and go, okay, do we really want to handicap ourselves? Do we really want to lose the race to AI again, and this is with all the trepidation of what is AI going to create?” Johnson said.
On Jobs and AI
Johnson dismissed fears that AI will gut the workforce, drawing a comparison to the collapse of agricultural employment over the last century.
“I’m far less concerned about AI replacing jobs. Take a look at America 100 years ago, and we’re an agricultural economy, and you had way more than 50 percent of the American population or working Americans providing food. Now it is single digits. That’s a good thing. I mean, all those farmers lost jobs, but they’re doing other things,” Johnson said.
“Right now, we don’t have enough workers. Our biggest problem isn’t trade or trade deficits. We don’t have workers, so, you know, AI will free up and will have more workers producing things,” he added.
Who Sets the Rules?
Johnson said his real worry isn’t data centers at all, but the possibility that advanced general AI develops without any binding safety rules.
“I’m concerned about out-of-control AI. Who is going to provide general intelligence the rules, so they don’t destroy the human race? I’m a big reader of science fiction, and Isaac Asimov had three basic commandments for robotics. We need something like that. But who’s doing it?” Johnson said.
He said he isn’t willing to trust the tech industry to police itself, citing the fallout from social media.
“Now, I don’t have faith in these kids who are running these AI companies — they’re the same ones that unleash social media on us, to many benefits, to great benefits, but also a great deal of harm to people as well,” Johnson said. “Because, again, they want to make a buck. Nothing wrong with that, but this is where I actually do need government.”
“You need responsible people making sure that we have basic laws so that generalized intelligence doesn’t destroy the human race,” Johnson said. “That’s what worries me. Not AI centers, not data centers.”
He closed by repeating that he wants the grid and water impacts of data centers examined honestly, without exaggeration.
“I want to be very aware of how we are impacting our electrical grid and the impact on water resources. But again, I think that’s largely overstated,” he said.
