0:00 Let me start off by saying that in my view,
0:05 and in the view of people who know a lot more about this issue
0:08 than I do,
0:10 we are at the beginning of the most profound technological revolution in world history.
0:19 Period.
0:19 Most profound technological revolution in world history,
0:22 a revolution that will bring unimaginable changes to our society in a relatively short
0:29 period of time.
0:31 Artificial intelligence and robotics will impact our economy, our democracy, our privacy rights,
0:39 our emotional well-being, our environment,
0:42 and even our very survival as human beings on this planet.
0:49 The scale, scope, and speed of this transformation will be unprecedented.
0:55 According to Demis uh Hassabis, who is the head of Google DeepMind,
1:02 the AI revolution will be 10 times bigger than the Industrial Revolution
1:09 and 10 times faster.
1:12 In other words, AI
1:14 and robotics will have a 100 times impact in terms of what the Industrial
1:22 Revolution did.
1:24 And it's not just what AI companies are saying, it's what they are doing.
1:30 This year alone, four major AI companies are expected to spend roughly 670 billion
1:38 dollars building data centers
1:41 and tens of billions more on research
1:44 and development.
1:46 Despite the extraordinary importance of this issue and its impact on every man, woman,
1:53 and child in this country,
1:55 AI has received far too little serious discussion here in our nation's capital.
2:03 I fear that Congress is totally unprepared for the magnitude of the changes
2:09 that are already taking place.
2:14 While Congress has not paid attention or enough attention to this issue,
2:19 the American people have.
2:22 According to a recent poll,
2:23 79% of voters are concerned
2:26 that the government does not have a plan to protect workers from AI job
2:33 losses.
2:34 That same poll also found that 56% of voters, majority of voters,
2:40 are concerned about losing their job
2:43 or having someone in their family lose their jobs in the next year.
2:49 Not in the next 10 years, in the next year.
2:53 Why are the American people so concerned?
2:58 And the answer is they have a lot of reasons to be concerned.
3:02 They understand that at a time of massive income and wealth inequality,
3:08 when the billionaire class has never ever had it so good,
3:13 some 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.
3:18 And the American people understand that the AI revolution, these massive investments,
3:25 are being driven by some of the wealthiest people in our country
3:29 and the world,
3:31 people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison.
3:37 They understand that these billionaires are investing huge amounts of money into AI
3:42 and robotics not to improve life for working families,
3:47 but to dramatically increase their own wealth and power.
3:52 Do you think the average American is sitting around trusting
3:55 that the multi-billionaires are going to transform society for the good of ordinary people?
4:00 I don't think so.
4:02 In terms of the impact that AI and robotics will have on working people,
4:06 let us listen to what the tech oligarchs themselves are saying.
4:13 Not the congresswoman, not me.
4:15 Let's hear what the tech oligarchs are themselves saying.
4:20 Elon Musk, who has made massive investments in AI and robotics, has stated,
4:24 and I quote, "AI and robots will replace all jobs."
4:33 That's about it.
4:33 Replace all jobs.
4:35 Bill Gates, another massive who's also made massive investments, has said, "Humans, quote,
4:42 won't be needed for most things, end quote."
4:45 And Mustafa Suleyman of Microsoft AI predicts
4:49 that most white-collar work could be automated within the next decade.
4:58 What we are talking about, therefore,
5:00 is the possibility that AI
5:02 and automation could displace tens of millions of workers in the United States from
5:10 their current employment.
5:12 We're already seeing early signs of this transformation with declining employment in AI-exposed occupations
5:19 and growing difficulty for young people entering the workforce.
5:25 If machines can perform most economically valuable work better than humans,
5:31 and that is the goal,
5:32 that machines will be able to do the job you are doing better than
5:38 you are doing.
5:40 If that happens, pretty simple question, what happens to the workers?
5:47 How do people earn a living?
5:50 How do they support their families?
5:53 And how do programs like Social Security
5:55 and Medicare survive without a stable tax base?
6:00 People are not working, they're not paying taxes.
6:03 And let me ask a very simple question
6:06 that is on the minds of millions of Americans.
6:10 How will workers who lose their jobs find new employment
6:17 if there are no jobs available?
6:21 What happens to the over 6 million truck drivers, cab drivers, ride share drivers,
6:27 and bus drivers if virtually if virtually all transportation is conducted through driverless vehicles?
6:40 Which under present circumstances seems likely to happen.
6:43 What happens to the young college graduates who today going out looking for an
6:48 entry-level job but that job is not there?
6:53 And let me say this maybe from personal experience.
6:57 I have seen this before
6:59 and the American working class has seen this process play out before.
7:04 In the 1990s, the working class of this country was told by the corporate
7:10 world,
7:10 by the elites, by the corporate media, "Don't worry about unfettered free trade.
7:16 My God, NAFTA, PNTR with China,
7:20 it is going to create millions and millions of good paying jobs."
7:23 Man, Democrats, Republicans, corporate executives, everybody came together.
7:29 Free trade going to be the best thing that ever happened to American workers.
7:32 Well, not quite.
7:35 What happened in fact is
7:36 that thousands and thousands of factories in this country were shut down.
7:41 And what happened is that millions of workers lost their jobs.
7:45 So, we have been We have seen this play out in the past.
7:52 But when we talk about AI and robotics,
7:54 we're not just talking about the economy.
7:57 AI is already reshaping how we as human beings relate to each other.
8:03 According to a recent poll by Common Sense Media,
8:06 72% of American teenagers say they have used AI for companionship.
8:15 And more than half do so regularly.
8:18 What does it mean for young people to form friendships with AI
8:27 and become more and more lonely
8:30 and isolated from other human beings?
8:34 Everybody understands we have a major mental health crisis for our young people right
8:38 now.
8:39 I fear that AI could make it even worse.
8:44 And then when we talk about what's going on,
8:46 we also have to talk about privacy.
8:50 Larry Ellison, second richest person on Earth who's gobbling up a lot of the
8:55 media in this country,
8:57 who is a major investor in AI predicts an AI-powered surveillance state is coming
9:04 where This is Larry Ellison,
9:06 major investor.
9:06 This is what he says.
9:09 Where citizens will be on their best behavior
9:12 because we're constantly recording
9:15 and reporting everything that is going on.
9:17 End quote.
9:19 That's your phone calls, your texts, your emails, the websites that you visit,
9:26 it will be recorded if we continue the current trends.
9:31 Further, AI is undermining American democracy.
9:35 The rise of deep fakes.
9:38 Where you have very convincing fake images.
9:41 It happened to me.
9:42 I don't know if they're happening to you.
9:43 All right?
9:44 Where they had me selling some rebates or something like that.
9:47 Look very good.
9:48 Almost convinced me, but it wasn't me.
9:51 Uh we're seeing fake videos, fake audios.
9:55 What happens when a day before the election somebody who looks like the candidate
10:00 gets up and says something outrageous
10:02 and people believe it?
10:07 If people cannot trust what they see and hear,
10:11 informed decision-making becomes nearly impossible.
10:14 It will become a harder and harder to distinguish between truth and untruth.
10:20 There's also in what we're seeing now a significant environmental cost.
10:24 AI requires enormous computing power driving the expansion of energy
10:29 and water-intensive data centers,
10:31 increasing electricity demand, and potentially deepening reliance on fossil fuels in the midst of
10:38 a climate crisis.
10:40 Finally, now let me say this.
10:44 And and I know some people out there may still think this is science
10:48 fiction.
10:48 But it ain't.
10:49 I have talked to some of the leading scientists
10:53 and most knowledgeable people in the world about the potential existential threats
10:59 that AI brings to the human race.
11:02 Including Geoffrey Hinton.
11:04 Some of you may know the Dr.
11:05 Hinton, who is a Nobel Prize winner in physics.
11:08 He's considered to be the godfather of AI.
11:10 He's worked on this thing for decades.
11:12 They have cautioned us
11:14 that AI could soon surpass human intelligence
11:19 and operate independently beyond our control.
11:24 And if that happens,
11:25 what they acknowledge is it poses a profound threat to the very survival of
11:31 the human race.
11:33 So, what is happening in Washington right now in response to all of these
11:37 enormous concerns?
11:38 Well, we learned just today
11:40 that Donald Trump uh has appointed a commission
11:45 which is made up of the very people who are going to financially benefit
11:51 from AI and robotics,
11:53 including some of the wealthiest people in the world like Mr.
11:56 Ellison, Mr.
11:57 Zuckerberg, uh and the video uh the video CEO Dennis Wong.
12:06 Jensen Wong.
12:06 And needless to say,
12:07 there is no representation on that commission of workers or environmentalists or consumers.
12:13 And that is why, in my view, we need a very different approach.
12:17 Across the country, communities already pushing back against the unchecked expansion of data centers.
12:23 More than 100 localities have enacted moratoriums or restrictions,
12:28 and states are beginning to take action as well.
12:31 Importantly, and this is a very important point,
12:35 leaders within the AI industry have called for a pause.
12:41 The guys who know the most about the threats of the development of AI
12:45 and robotics they robotics they have called for a pause.
12:48 In 2023, just about 3 years ago, over 1,000 experts, including Elon Musk,
12:56 uh called for AI labs to {quote} immediately pause for at least 6 months.
13:04 {end quote} And if such pause were not enacted,
13:07 and clearly a pause was not enacted,
13:11 they called on governments {quote} to step in and institute a moratorium.
13:18 They understood what is at stake.
13:21 Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and I understand what is at stake.
13:27 That is why today we are announcing legislation to impose a moratorium on the
13:30 construction of new AI data centers until strong national safeguards are in place to
13:39 ensure that AI is safe
13:43 and effective.
13:45 That means the government reviews and approves AI products before they are released.
13:50 Further that the economic gains of AI robotics will benefit ordinary Americans
13:57 and not just the billionaire owners of the industry.
14:01 Further that AI data centers do not increase electricity or utility prices, harm communities,
14:07 or destroy the environment.
14:09 Importantly, this legislation would also impose a ban on the export of AI chips
14:13 to any country without such protections,
14:16 including China.
14:18 A moratorium will give us time.
14:22 Time to understand the risks, time to protect working families,
14:26 time to defend our democracy,
14:28 and time to ensure the tech now this technology works for all of us,
14:32 not just the few.
14:34 So, with that, let me now introduce the congresswoman from New York,
14:40 Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
14:45 Thank you.
14:49 Thank you, Senator.
14:50 Um First and foremost,
14:52 I want to take a moment to express my get uh gratitude to Senator
14:56 Sanders for bringing us together today to introduce this critical legislation.
15:02 Within just a matter of short years,
15:04 AI has become often forcibly integrated into many aspects of American existence,
15:12 into our doctors' offices, our government, and oftentimes to the detriment of working people.
15:20 Last year alone, AI was responsible for over 54,000 layoffs nationwide.
15:27 And when we talk about those jobs, it's not just a number.
15:31 These are industries, these are communities, these are families.
15:35 You know, just a few a few short years ago,
15:37 Sam Altman came before Congress.
15:41 And in a direct plea, he begged us to regulate this industry.
15:49 He said that these tools were under no circumstances ready,
15:54 nor should they be integrated into weapons of war.
15:58 They that we must impose severe regulations immediately to prevent mass layoffs
16:05 and to ensure that any productivity
16:07 that comes of this industry can benefit working people.
16:11 Three short years later, none of that has happened, and in fact,
16:15 in many cases, the opposite has happened.
16:19 I'll start with another quote from Sam Altman, who said 10 years ago,
16:23 "AI will probably lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime,
16:29 there will be great companies created with serious machine learning."
16:34 Uh while I'm happy that Mr.
16:37 Altman is responsible uh on his end of the deal, you know,
16:41 he has his responsibilities on the company side,
16:44 our responsibility is to take care of people.
16:47 And that is what we're here to do today.
16:50 Unfortunately, the leaders of this industry have repeated time
16:55 and time again that they view working people
16:58 as an unless as an endless untapped market to be manipulated
17:02 and exploited.
17:04 That they would sell our country out
17:06 if it meant that they could turn a profit.
17:10 And it is no surprise that in the four years since ChatGPT was released,
17:15 we have seen AI deployed at a massive scale to create Big Brother-like surveillance.
17:21 Every day Americans are seeing videos of ICE agents waving phones into crowds threatening
17:28 that if they use their First Amendment rights,
17:30 US citizens using their First Amendment rights,
17:34 that they will be added to some vague database
17:36 that the American people have not consented to nor are knowledgeable about.
17:41 Companies like Palantir are mining endlessly the data and privacy of the American people,
17:49 keeping track of everything that they say and do,
17:53 and sending it all to a militarized and centralized government.
17:59 When you take the subway, when you share a TikTok,
18:01 when you talk to your Alexa at home,
18:04 they are collecting your data and figuring out new ways to weaponize it.
18:08 And now they are using AI tools to automate this
18:13 so that it is not only pervasive,
18:15 but that it is effortless.
18:17 We must sound the alarm now.
18:21 And because of this surveillance of the American people is not going to stop,
18:26 we must stop it.
18:28 All of this harm has occurred not in spite of,
18:31 but because of the absence of federal legislation to regulate AI.
18:36 This is not my first bill about around AI,
18:40 and I can tell you
18:42 that it is extremely discouraging to see how even the most minute efforts to
18:51 protect people at some of the smallest
18:54 and most basic level,
18:56 like trying to prevent AI-generated child pornography,
19:00 is still combatted often times by many people here on the Hill
19:05 and throughout industry.
19:08 In this story, currently, the story of AI is a story of corruption.
19:13 It is fueled and funded by the same multi-billion-dollar corporations lobbying politicians to sit
19:19 back and do nothing
19:21 while they harm our communities.
19:23 In fact, one of the largest explosions of super PAC
19:26 and outside funding is by the AI industry.
19:29 And for years Congress has enabled this permission structure.
19:33 A permission structure that allows billionaires like Sam Altman, Elon Musk,
19:38 and Peter Thiel to be trusted to regulate themselves under the guise of {quote}
19:44 American innovation.
19:46 And what are they asking for now?
19:49 Endless energy.
19:52 These companies are now
19:53 so desperate to profit off of the AI boom
19:56 that they are racing to construct thousands of giant AI data centers
20:01 and jacking up the utility costs of everyday Americans to pay for it.
20:07 These data centers power thousands of high-intensity computer chips
20:11 that are processing at all times
20:13 and require massive amounts of energy to operate.
20:17 Just one hyperscale data center consumes the same amount of energy in 1 second
20:22 as 100,000 households.
20:25 Because of the massive amounts of energy they use,
20:28 power and water utility companies must build multi-billion-dollar infrastructure to keep up with the
20:34 demand.
20:35 And these companies are not paying for their own energy infrastructure.
20:41 People's energy bills around the country are skyrocketing in order to pay for these
20:47 AI data centers for them.
20:50 In the last 5 years,
20:51 Americans who live near data centers saw their electric bills increase over 267% each
20:58 month.
20:59 We are talking about an $80 in a monthly increase from $80 a month
21:04 to $294 a month.
21:08 Working people are already living paycheck to paycheck in some states off of wages
21:13 as low as $7.25 an hour,
21:17 another federal minimum wage that Congress also refuses to raise.
21:23 They simply cannot afford another increase to their monthly bills.
21:28 And this results in people cutting corners whenever they can to keep the lights
21:32 on,
21:32 whether it's skipping meals or rationing their insulin.
21:35 And while the American people are suffering, Big Tech continues to demand more.
21:41 More data centers, more energy, more data collection, more American jobs replaced by AI,
21:47 all on the feet of the American people to pay.
21:52 And across the country, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are standing up.
21:58 People are standing up to Big Tech
22:00 and saying no to these data centers being built in their own communities.
22:05 More than 100 local communities across 12 states have already enacted local moratoriums on
22:10 data centers.
22:12 And Congress itself has a moral obligation to stand with them
22:15 and stop Big Tech from ruining their communities.
22:19 Our legislation in the House
22:20 and the Senate would hit the brakes on construction of new data centers until
22:24 we address several of the key areas of harm AI poses.
22:30 Our bills learn from our lack of regulation following the similar rise uh regarding
22:35 the internet and demands a new approach to AI.
22:38 One that protects the American people from Big Tech's egregious overreach.
22:42 One bound by our shared commitment over those who wish to patent it.
22:47 One that centers prosperity for the many over exorbitant profits for the very few.
22:52 Thank you.
22:54 Join our global community of English learners, absolutely free.
22:59 Download video transcripts, listen offline, start our beginner course,
23:04 and join live classes with certified teachers.
23:07 Access over 1,000 resources to improve your English faster.
23:12 Everything's in one place, community.englishspeeches.ca.
23:16 Let's speak English together.
