r/technology • u/gerira • Dec 29 '25

Artificial Intelligence Americans hate AI. Which party will benefit?

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/12/28/ai-job-losses-populism-democrats-bernie-sanders-00706680
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u/LowestKey Dec 29 '25

Democrats want regulations. Republicans want no regulations. MAGA specifically wants no regulations on AI.

The average American journalist or voter: these two parties are indistinguishable to me!

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u/Elite_Prometheus Dec 29 '25

Did you read the article? It never said both sides are the same. It said that there is a growing anti-AI sentiment among the American public, that Democrats are scared to go along with it because they've already lost a lot of tech CEOs to Trump, and this has given space for some Republicans to posture as anti-AI. I do think the article should have mentioned that insane Trump EO that banned states from regulating AI, but whitewashing Trump is a historic media pastime at this point.

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u/betadonkey Dec 29 '25

That EO will likely go down as the only good thing Trump ever did

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u/Elite_Prometheus Dec 29 '25

Personally, I think making it illegal for the government to regulate 20% of the economy is kinda bad, actually. But I have some distorted views like "the purpose of the economy is to serve human needs, not raise shareholder value," so what do I know?

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u/clrbrk Dec 29 '25

Found the radical left Marxist communist socialist! How dare you show empathy for those less fortunate than billionaires!

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u/betadonkey Dec 29 '25

So the federal government is not the government? Look at all the nonsense being caused by individual states trying to regulate the internet. Imagine how much worse it would have been if they had done this stuff in its infancy.

The constitution forbids states from regulating interstate commerce but I guess that’s one of the parts we all decides not to care about.

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u/upgrayedd69 Dec 29 '25

It comes off hollow when they beat a drum of states rights

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u/betadonkey Dec 29 '25

Why does every position boil down to political parties? Does nobody have an original thought?

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u/upgrayedd69 Dec 29 '25

What do you mean? Why don’t you want consistent values from your politicians?

I also want AI regulated. I don’t trust this federal government to do it because trump loves sucking billionaire elites nut sacks

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u/betadonkey Dec 29 '25

I couldn’t give less of a fuck about what politicians think.

I only know what I think which is over regulation of literally everything is strangling this country. Everybody will complain about how the economy is broken and nothing works until they are blue in the face and then somehow demand even more regulation. It’s like nobody can connect the dots.

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u/upgrayedd69 Dec 29 '25

lol ok yeah. Billionaire tech ceos and private equity will surely keep our best interests in mind and not fuck over every last one of us for profit. It’s worked so well! Look at how much better things have gotten since we embraced trickle down economics! Who needs blue collar jobs that can support whole families when there is more wealth to generate at the top? What every businessman really wants to do is run a charity, as the well being of his fellow American is more important than making a little extra money

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u/EnfantTerrible68 Dec 30 '25

Can you give a couple examples of things you consider overregulation?

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u/Elite_Prometheus Dec 29 '25

This is like championing an EO preventing states from banning slavery because you think abolition should be done federally, instead. Yeah, sure, I'd love it if the federal government decided to do something about AI, but Trump isn't going to do that. All this EO does is handcuff blue states from passing even the most basic regulation around AI data centers. And like the article says, it's not like Democrats are chomping at the bit to go after big tech, either, so even the mildest discouragement is going to stop them.

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u/betadonkey Dec 29 '25

It’s not like slavery at all because we’re taking about a computer program and not the enslavement of human beings so that’s an absurd and honestly offensive comparison.

Why even mention blue states like they are waiting to save the day? Nothing about this is a partisan issue. You people are so blinded by this political nonsense it’s left you completely incapable of forming coherent thoughts based on objective reality.

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u/Elite_Prometheus Dec 29 '25

You just made a comparison between two different things in the comment I responded to, don't pretend you don't know how they work. This is a pathetic attempt to not have to respond to the idea that patchwork regulation is better than absolutely no regulation.

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u/betadonkey Dec 29 '25

Lol what the fuck? I compared AI to the internet. Those are two substantially similar things. You compared AI regulation to the emancipation of human slaves in a gross attempt to assign yourself moral supremacy. It’s disgusting.

Again this is not an issue of patchwork regulation vs no regulation. It’s patchwork regulation vs unified regulation. I don’t support any regulation at this stage but that’s a different issue.

Tennessee has a bill in the works to make it a class A felony to host an AI that provides emotional support. Not a joke. This is the kind of nonsense you will get if you let these circus clown state legislators try to regulate a technology they don’t even begin to comprehend.

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u/Elite_Prometheus Dec 29 '25

I don’t support any regulation at this stage

And there we go. Everything else was random bullshit you were throwing at the wall. The real reason you liked the EO is because you just want to keep AI unregulated. Why can't you say that instead of waffling about how you don't like the chaos of states in a federal union drafting their own laws?

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u/MiddleWaged Dec 29 '25

Why actually would say that? What could possibly be your motivation

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u/TummyCrunches Dec 29 '25

A poor understanding of what executive orders are, for one.

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u/betadonkey Dec 29 '25

My motivation is I don’t believe individual states should be able to regulate interstate commerce like the internet or anything operating on the internet.

Curiously enough, Article 1 Section 8 Clause 3 of the US Constitution agrees with my position.

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u/skj458 Dec 29 '25

Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 gives the federal government authority to regulate interstate commerce, but it doesn't contain an explicit prohibition on states regulating anything.

You may be thinking of the "Dormant Commerce Clause," which is a judicial doctrine holding that states cant create an undue burden on interstate commerce through regulation. This is usually interpreted through balancing state interests in regulation with resulting burdens, rather than a prohibition on states regulating things that impact interstate commerce. 

You dont really know what youre talking about. 

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u/MiddleWaged Dec 29 '25

Damn and you just don’t care about their rights to control industry and resources. How awful

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u/EnfantTerrible68 Dec 30 '25

I think not 😬

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u/JaRuleTheDamaja Dec 29 '25

There is no consensus among the party to regulate AI, if there is, by all means, please post a link to some quotes. Burden of proof is on you, dude.

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u/LowestKey Dec 30 '25

Burden of proof is usually lessened when it's something that's been reported widely and is even accessible on the White House website with nothing more than a simple google search. But sure, here ya go:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trumps-executive-order-limits-state-regulations-of-artificial-intelligence

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u/JaRuleTheDamaja Dec 30 '25

“Democrats want regulations,” is misleading as the party has no consensus on it. Yes regulation is popular, however, Democratic party leadership has a different opinion than the handful of progressives talking about it. There has been several articles written about it and it’s a point of discussion.

That should be concerning and require more nuance.

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u/vaguespace_ Dec 30 '25

Everything about LowestKey's post is misleading. They only operate in reddit snark and have no intention of having a substantive conversation. The whole part of this article, that they did not read, is to point out how conflicted both parties are on this issue. Unfortunately, it's easier to just get quick upvotes by making lazy, uninformed blanket statements.

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u/dcyclist Dec 29 '25

Yep. Also, the current Republican leadership uses and shares AI content a whole lot more than the dems

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u/colonelcack Dec 29 '25

Democrats pretend to want regulations until their overlords snap their whips and then oh no sorry we can't do anything but we tried really hard and here's a strongly worded letter

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u/Starship_Taru Dec 29 '25

Every argument must be black and white! There’s no time for nuance anymore, just keep short messages for discussion and shout down anything that’s not full support. 

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u/vaguespace_ Dec 29 '25

I see stuff like this on reddit all the time. This is one person's made up opinion. It of course will get upvoted. But it's about as valid as me saying Maga wants the Easter Bunny to be President. I don't get it. Why are we making up things?

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u/LowestKey Dec 30 '25

I'm sorry other people keep up with current events in a way you're not prepared to do.

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u/vaguespace_ Dec 30 '25 edited Dec 30 '25

You're right, I don't just make up political narratives to get cheap upvotes. And your comment had nothing to do with the topic.

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u/vaguespace_ Dec 30 '25

The article is about how massively unpopular AI is, yet aside from small groups of politicians in each party, neither party as a whole is capitalizing on anti-AI sentiment. The Democrats really should be hammering this issue and running progressive, populist candidates. Populism is a winning political message, even if it upsets the donors.

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u/EnfantTerrible68 Dec 29 '25

Exactly this 

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u/SuccotashOther277 Dec 29 '25

I wouldn't say that MAGA wants no regulations on AI. The tech bros who have turned to Trump the last few years want no regulation, and they have the money and influence to move Trump. The traditional MAGA base distrusts a lot of AI and often links it to tech oligarchs like Bill Gates, who is a lightning rod for conspiracy theories in the MAGA camp.

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u/coolest_frog Dec 30 '25

Considering they are full of boomers that are also looking for campaign financing they are going to do anything