Democrats’ opportunity with AI

Companies heavily invested in the growth of artificial intelligence need more compute power. They are going to look for it in small towns and major cities across the country. Hundreds of projects are in the works to build data centers to provide amounts of power that are hard to imagine.

Citizens aren't loving these companies coming into their backyards. Why? The worry their utility bills, from electricity to water, will increase somewhat substantially.

It should go without saying: The AI industry should be paying for its own increased energy use--not the residents of a city. AI platforms are siphoning off significant amount of public resources--like from an electric grid and water supplies. That makes it a public policy and political issue.

A Pew poll published in March showed people in both parties--though Democrats more so--are concerned about rising costs, the environment, and quality of life when it comes to data centers.

Maine passed a temporary ban on large data centers this year. A majority in Wisconsin think the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits.

Needless to say, the AI titans are facing a messaging challenge with data centers. That's why Meta launched an ad campaign earlier this year. The core message was jobs—a tough sell. Overlaying AI's cost on top of the already poor economy isn't playing well. (See Blue Rose Research)

The data center issue, for now, is up for grabs. Either party could take the lead against AI cost increases to the taxpayer.

AI as a campaign tool

It's a different story when it comes to using AI as a tool for branding and ad creation in the campaign world. Republicans, who have embraced AI, seem to have to advantage.

With some exceptions, professional Democrats have expressed reservations about the technology.

"Democratic operatives — many wary of privacy risks and worried what AI could mean for their jobs — have been much slower to adopt the technology in their campaigns," Axios reported.

The National Democratic Training Committee (NDTC) has developed a playbook for how Democratic campaigns use AI. That playbook, Wired found, “points out ways Democrats shouldn’t use AI and discourages candidates from using AI to deepfake their opponents, impersonate real people, or create images and videos that could ‘deceive voters by misrepresenting events, individuals, or reality. This undermines democratic discourse and voter trust,’ the training reads.”

Small “d” democratic discourse has already been undermined by social media, the cable news, and Donald Trump.

Dismissing the emergence of new media and tech tools for campaigning today is like rejecting the use of radio for electioneering in the 1930s and 40s.

I'm all about reigning in AI as a policy matter. It needs governance that protects innovation and the tech's immense potential. But do that legislatively. Not during the most important election of our lifetimes.