Wynton Hall to Politico: AI Raises a ‘Trillion-Dollar Question’ for Conservatives

The rapid pace of AI development and the impacts the technology are already having on employment, education, and mental health have underscored the fact that the future of artificial intelligence is not a black and white issue for conservatives. Many people within the MAGA coalition have nuanced views including concerns about safety, especially AI’s impact on children. To better understand conservative thinking on AI, Politico turned to Breitbart News’ Wynton Hall to address what he calls the “trillion-dollar question” of artificial intelligence.

In a recent interview with Politico, Breitbart News social media director and New York Times best-selling author Wynton Hall, whose forthcoming HarperCollins book, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, is due out early next year, discussed the division amongst conservatives related to the future of AI. President Donald Trump’s recently announced AI action plan has set off a wave of criticism from some prominent supporters, highlighting a significant divide within the Republican party.

While Trump and his administration are working closely with industry CEOs to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence, many of the party’s voters and leaders are deeply mistrustful of the technology and the power of Big Tech. As Hall explained in a recent speech, the Big Tech Masters of the Universe believe that “culture is downstream from code.”

Hall commented: “There is within the conservative movement certainly a concern about child safety, mental health, all those things.” The rapid pace of AI development means that its impact on these areas are just beginning to be understood. For example, a recent lawsuit accuses OpenAI’s ChatGPT of serving as a teenager’s “suicide coach” leading up to his tragic death. The term ChatGPT induced psychosis has been coined to describe the mental health impacts of overuse of AI chatbots.

Hall added that he sees a growing concern within the conservative movement about AI’s impact on job security and warns that the political consequences of AI will become clearer later when the effect of the technology on the job market is felt. “That’s the big trillion-dollar question,” he said. A Stanford study backs up Hall’s assessment of AI’s economic disruption, showing that companies are turning to artificial intelligence instead of hiring fresh grads in fields including software development and customer service.

Speaking at the National Conservatism conference in Washington in early September, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) criticized the AI revolution as a step towards transhumanism, which he argued is currently against the interests of the working class and the teachings of the Bible. He also warned that it could lead to the installation of “a rich and powerful elite.” Hawley’s declaration that “Americanism and the transhumanist revolution cannot coexist” was met with spontaneous applause from the audience.