Listen to the Workers!

According to an opinion piece by Eoin Higgins published in The New York Times, Progressives Are Listening to the Wrong People on A.I., progressive Democrats like Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are fundamentally mismanaging their approach to artificial intelligence regulation by leaning into a hyper-dramatic, apocalyptic Silicon Valley sales pitch rather than a grounded, realistic legislative strategy. Higgins argues that tech leaders intentionally hype up AI's "godlike" and potentially catastrophic risks to drive up stock values, and left-leaning politicians have unwittingly validated this marketing by introducing "outlandish" bills—such as a proposed moratorium on data center construction—that echo billionaire rhetoric about "the future of humanity." Instead of treating chatbots like living entities or focusing on marginal regulatory tweaks that die in committee, Higgins stresses that progressives need to pivot and listen to the tech industry's middle and working classes—developers, engineers, and analysts—who actually understand the tools' day-to-day benefits and limitations, and whose ongoing labor protests against military contracts and corporate surveillance offer a practical blueprint for meaningful, pro-regulation policy.