President Donald Trump’s steadfast support for artificial intelligence is butting up against rising voter fears that the technology will take their jobs amid a weakening labor market and constant headlines about AI-related layoffs in Silicon Valley.
Few technological innovations in recent years have had such a large potential impact on the economy, and few have been so hotly debated. But despite a flurry of hearings, letters and bill introductions, Congress has largely skirted the issue even though many proposals have bipartisan support.
“We haven’t done anything,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican and one of the GOP’s most vocal advocates of AI regulation. “The public will pretty soon demand it.”
That reflects the bind that many on Capitol Hill, particularly Republicans who control both chambers in Congress, find themselves in.
On the one hand, data is still showing mixed signals about how AI will disrupt the labor market, making Republicans reluctant to get in the way of groundbreaking innovation or buck Trump, who has said the U.S. will do “whatever it takes” to lead the world in the technology. There’s also the concern that constraining AI development could give China the upper hand in the technological arms race.
“There’s an implication that you may need to slow down AI, because it may be disrupting jobs, but China and our international competitors aren’t,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican. “If you stop, China wins.”
And yet a slew of recent polls have made it clear that voters are worried about AI’s effect on the economy. Roughly 63 percent of Americans, and 62 percent of Republicans, say AI will result in fewer jobs, according to a February The Economist/YouGov survey.
All this comes at a time when the labor market is already slowing, heightening voter anxiety. Employers shed 92,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Meanwhile, a steady drumbeat of job cut announcements in the tech industry could be a sign of things to come throughout the labor market. Last month the financial tech firm Block laid off about 40 percent of its staff, a move its chief executive attributed to the deployment of new “intelligence tools.”
“It’s obvious to a lot of people that AI could have a significant impact on jobs. It’s not obvious to pretty much anyone what the policy solution to that would be,” said Brad Littlejohn, the program director and policy adviser at American Compass, a conservative, economic populist think tank. “It’s a lot easier to just put your head in the sand and ignore the problem."
Some in the tech industry are growing frustrated waiting for Congress to act.
“What is it about the political process that makes it hard to do common sense things that both parties agree to?” said a senior tech industry representative who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “There’s bipartisan consensus around doing things to support workers.”
As AI becomes more widespread, it could cause significant near-term disruptions to the labor market, economists say. Some of today’s occupations could disappear entirely, replaced by automation. In the long run, many economists say AI will create a more productive economy with new types of jobs for people to fill. But the transition will be bumpy.
Research by Goldman Sachs finds that if widely deployed, AI could replace up to 7 percent of U.S. jobs, although many of those displaced workers would find new jobs.
Artificial intelligence may already be affecting the labor market, said Stanford University professor Erik Brynjolfsson, a prominent economist studying the labor implications of AI.
Brynjolfsson and Stanford University colleagues Bharat Chandar and Ruyu Chen have found early signs that AI-driven labor disruption may be hitting younger workers. They find employment among 22- to 25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed occupations has fallen 16 percent relative to peers since AI tools emerged in late 2022, as more experienced workers in those same roles have largely held steady.
Brynjolfsson has been hearing from lawmakers in both parties lately, seeking guidance as they work on bipartisan AI legislation.
“This is becoming much more of an issue for politicians — they can’t just sit back and watch,” he said.
Of the bills introduced in Congress, most of the focus is on beefing up worker training programs to help those likely to lose their jobs to AI or to prepare younger workers for new types of jobs. Another set of bills calls on employers and the administration to compile data on AI-related layoffs. Other proposals, mostly from Democrats, would restrict how employers use AI, for instance barring them from using the technology for employee surveillance or from relying on it exclusively in hiring decisions.
“I hear from a lot of college graduates now, who are new entrants in the labor market, that they’re having a really tough time finding jobs,” Hawley said. “I’m really concerned about it. I’m concerned about it for blue collar workers too.”
In November he introduced a bill with Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia to collect more data on AI-related layoffs or hiring slowdowns, which could help lawmakers plan for the future.
This week, the pair led a bipartisan group of senators in sending a letter to Labor Department and Census officials asking for better data on the economic impact of AI.
“I’m pro-AI,” Warner said. “Over the long haul, it’ll bring enormous positives, but for the next five to seven years, the disruptions that can take place, and I think a lot of it is going to take place with recent college grads.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who co-chairs the Senate AI Caucus, said he expects short-term disruptions as AI rolls out across the economy but he’s optimistic about the long-term benefits.
“There will be a transition period. There always is,” he said. “Every time you have a technology change you have an upheaval, but there’s also opportunity.”
Others on the Hill say concerns are bubbling up in their districts.
“I’m hearing anxiety about AI; part of it has to do with potential job loss,” said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore). “If the job market changes and is different then we have to prepare people.”
The Trump administration has put its muscle behind accelerating American AI dominance, even using an executive order to stop states from regulating the industry for fear of slowing it down.
The administration’s policy around job loss has largely focused on encouraging workforce training and AI literacy for students and government employees. The White House has also outlined — but not yet implemented — other ideas, such as creating an AI workforce research hub to evaluate the impact of the technology or putting into place large-scale retraining programs for displaced workers. The Labor Department has begun rolling out funding to expand apprenticeship programs, which the administration has prioritized as a way to quickly retrain workers.
A White House official said the focus is on keeping the economy growing to cushion workers from any disruption related to AI.
“The goal is for workers to continue to have access to high-paying jobs and that workers can easily adapt to new technologies and processes,” the official said.
The question of how AI will affect workers is also playing out inside companies driving the AI boom. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are investing tens of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure while cutting jobs and slowing hiring.
“It’s on their mind, they’re aware of it,” said the CEO of a publicly traded AI company who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “But the risk of not continuing to advance their technology at breakneck speed, and the resulting impact on their valuation and their personal net worth, impairs their objectivity.”
Despite a flurry of proposals and hearings, no bill is close to the president’s desk even though many of these proposals have bipartisan support. But if the economy and the labor market continue to weaken, lawmakers may find it hard to justify inaction, said James Bessen, executive director of the Technology and Policy Research Initiative at Boston University.
“Jobs aren’t growing like they used to,” he said. “Affordability is the political buzzword — and it may be that AI has very little to do with it, but the perception is there.”
Katherine Hapgood and Lawrence Ukenye contributed to this report.
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