Casar wants Democrats to make JD Vance’s Silicon Valley ties a liability
Por Owen Dahlkamp — POLITICO – TOP Stories
Rep. Greg Casar wants Democrats to cast Vice President JD Vance as an ally of Silicon Valley’s powerful tech executives — and make those ties a political liability in 2028.
The Texas Democrat is expected to preview that argument Saturday at a Pennsylvania county party dinner, where he’ll urge his party to frame artificial intelligence as an economic issue. “A small number of AI billionaires are remaking all of American society to make themselves richer, and we’re all getting screwed,” he plans to say, according to an excerpt of his remarks first shared with POLITICO.
Casar’s speech in a key swing state is the latest indicator that the Congressional Progressive Caucus chair is positioning himself as a leading Democratic voice on tech. It comes as his party wrestles with how to channel voters’ skepticism over AI and data centers and whether to pursue more anti-tech, populist messaging.
“JD Vance got his Senate seat in the first place because California tech billionaires bought it for him,” Casar is expected to say, a nod to a slate of prominent tech allies Vance has cultivated in his rise through national politics. “We’re going to vote them out in 2026 and then vote Vance out in 2028.”
Peter Thiel, David Sacks and Marc Andreessen have each contributed to Vance’s campaign or helped fund his own firm.
Casar is expected to warn that AI executives are threatening millions of jobs with automation and jeopardizing Americans’ freedoms with mass surveillance, according to the speech excerpt. They are also threatening human safety with AI that is too powerful to control, he plans to say.
Casar has repeatedly warned that rogue AI agents, which have resulted in a string of hacking attempts across the internet, could pose serious risks for humanity.
Earlier this month, he introduced a bill alongside Sanders to pause AI development until a government vetting regime could be set up and ban superintelligence, a type of highly sophisticated AI that far surpasses humans’ cognitive capabilities.
That followed an appearance at a pro-human AI conference earlier this month, sharing the stage with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Steve Bannon, during which he called for the U.S. to use diplomacy to curb the AI arms race rather than try to win it. In July, he warned the Democrats are “in the wilderness” on AI and that members of his party are failing to address evidence of AI’s growing threats.
Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories
