The Impact of Tech
A few years ago, some producers approached me about doing a TV show called “The Future of . . . with Andrew Yang.” The theme was I would talk about the future of education one week, healthcare or transportation the next, etc. I thought it could be an interesting way to get some points out and so was glad to explore the possibility. Then, a few weeks later they came back with some mildly surprising data. “So . . . we tested this out with a bunch of viewers, and it turns out that they like you, but they don’t like the future. So we’ll try to think of something else.”
Jonathan Haidt had a new book come out last week called “The Anxious Generation,” that makes a compelling case that social media has been behind the surge in anxiety and depression among young people, particularly girls. He recommends curbing smartphone and social media use for minors and making schools phone-free.
This past week on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart did an extended segment on AI coming to replace workers. I received a number of messages saying, “He sounds just like your presidential campaign four years ago!”
If you think about the future, there’s something of a veil of negativity. I wrote in the War on Normal People that we will naturally trend toward either Mad Max or Star Trek in a future of either scarcity or abundance. If you look at movies, TV and the news, it’s clear that most people think our future is more likely to be dystopian than the opposite.
AI is going to change civilization on a scale that may be unprecedented. This week on the podcast, I interview Jo Ling Kent, senior business and tech correspondent for CBS. She said, “Right now it’s clear that the U.S. and China are developing their own AI domains with different data and algorithms in each. It’s not direct competition so much as two different worlds.”
In the Daily Show segment, Jon Stewart showed various legislators – generally of advanced age – evincing ignorance about how to approach AI. Our lack of confidence in government is fueling the pessimism about the future that many of us feel.
How do you feel about the future? And what would it take to make you optimistic?
When I ran for President I had what many felt was a utopian vision, starting with Universal Basic Income. Most people back then thought it was impossible that our government could send checks to tens of millions of Americans. Then we did a version of that in 2020 and halved child poverty in 2021 with an enhanced child tax credit. The child tax credit fell prey to political dysfunction a year later, but demonstrated that we can meaningfully reduce poverty if our leaders have the will.
Some experts project that AI will increase global GDP by 10% by 2032 – or as much as ~$10 trillion. Where will that wealth go?
What’s ironic is that we are succumbing to scarcity just at the moment when abundance – Star Trek – might actually be a possibility. It turns out that if you don’t believe in government, it’s hard to imagine that the benefits of innovation will be broadly shared.
Why don’t we believe that tech is going to help? It’s because we don’t believe in our leaders. We don’t believe in our capacity to mold our own future. We may not believe in ourselves.
Can that change? That’s the core question on which everything depends.
For my interview with Jo Ling Kent click here. To join Forward to reform our political system, click here. For my book on the future we face, “The War on Normal People” click here. It includes a positive vision that we could yet achieve.
