When AI Turns Politics Upside Down - 12/15/25
The American people are increasingly frightened of artificial intelligence. In response to these fears, American politicians are offering… almost nothing.
Campaigns are already exploring the use of AI-generated imagery, deepfakes that can be used to mislead voters with falsified photos, videos, and audio. But even while the application of artificial intelligence wreaks havoc on the way campaigns communicate with voters, politicians of both parties are trying to figure out how to stay ahead of Americans’ growing concerns about the technology’s impact on our economy, our families, and our society with limited success.
It’s been barely three years since ChatGPT was publicly released, and our political system is ill-equipped to confront challenges that emerge so quickly. Most public polling shows an unprecedented level of wariness toward this new technology, a backlash that simply did not exist when the Internet, social media, or radio and television were introduced to society. Americans are deeply concerned about potential job loss, the spread of false information, AI’s impact on children, and the immense demands for electricity from data centers that are already causing utility prices to skyrocket.
On the other hand, the potential benefits of the technology’s development are mind-boggling. AI’s ability to instantaneously analyze vast amounts of data allows it to tackle some of humanity’s biggest challenges, from predicting and mitigating climate change effects to improving disease detection and treatment in healthcare. It enhances disaster response efforts, strengthens cybersecurity by detecting threats in real time, and allows for personalized experiences in education and healthcare that had previously been unimaginable.
Given not only the complexities of these issues but also the extraordinary amount of money and influence at stake in resolving them, it’s not surprising that the US political system has demonstrated its lack of capacity to confront these challenges in a meaningful way. A majority of state legislatures have taken piecemeal action, but most are merely nibbling around the edges of the complexities of these issues. Congress is predictably deadlocked, hamstrung on the passage of even basic protections for children by concerns about free speech, privacy, and enforcement.
Onto this playing field stepped Donald Trump, who last week issued an executive order drastically limiting the ability of states to enact regulations on artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, the Senate voted 99-1 to oppose such a moratorium, but technology leaders have argued that an overly oppressive regulatory approach could suppress further innovation and development and leave the US at an economic and potentially national security disadvantage to Chinese advances in this area.
Trump, like all politicians, is facing an electorate that is increasingly anxious about the impact of these technologies on their lives. We currently lack a leader in either party with the skills or the respect to reassure a nervous public. So it’s easy to see a political climate developing in which populist anger toward artificial intelligence causes massive upheaval in both parties.
Trump himself is already struggling with an exceedingly restive MAGA base, which has been expressing their unhappiness on matters ranging from inflation to tariffs to health care premiums (not to mention Ukraine, Venezuela, and Jeffrey Epstein.) The president’s recent statements about the need to bring more foreign workers and international students to the US have unsettled many of his longtime loyalists, and the threat of AI to white-collar jobs in office parks across America will be even more unnerving. Social conservatives are demanding controls on what their children can access online, and the rapidly rising cost of electricity contributed to landslide victories for Democratic candidates for governor in New Jersey and Virginia last month.
But for the most part, leading Democrats are equally confounded by these emerging policy challenges. Big-state governors like Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York have both signed oversight legislation but derailed more aggressive measures under pressure from big-tech donors. The party’s likely presidential candidates are noticeably circumspect on these issues as well.
One notable exception is Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who has been warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence for years. Other Democrats, like former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, along with Republicans such as Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, are voicing similar concerns, but for the most part, they have been limited to the edges of the debate.
Without a high-profile champion, the debate over artificial intelligence is poised to dramatically reshape the political landscape. Right now, neither party seems to understand how much their world is about to change.