Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) warns that AI will reshape society by accelerating a major winner-take-all type of inequality. The senator also described AI as an existential test for America’s founding “moral covenant” that risks turning humans into “raw material” and children into victims.
“Artificial intelligence is testing our commitment to the great moral covenant that binds us together as a nation,” Hawley began in an op-ed for First Things, titled, “The American Covenant’s Answer to AI.”
Hawley then elaborated on the moral stakes of AI, adding, “The decisions we must soon make about the most powerful technology of our lifetimes are among the most difficult we have yet faced. These decisions go far beyond questions of economics or policy.”
“They are questions of labor and the family, of freedom and the value of human life. They are fundamental questions of our identity as Americans and the nature of this republic given to us by God,” Hawley wrote.
“We do not have to imagine the stakes,” the senator continued, before diving into what he described as a “K-shaped” society, which he believes is the result of AI’s social impact. “We are watching a handful of companies assemble a concentration of capital, information, and political power without precedent in the American experience,” Hawley pointed out.
Hawley explains that the upper arm of the K represents the developers, executives, and investors of AI firms, while the lower arm of the K represents blue collar workers, professionals like paralegals, and fresh grads.
Hellbound and Down 