Alex Roark: It's Time for a Better Vision for American AI Leadership
America needs an AI strategy that translates technological progress into lower costs, stronger communities, and greater economic security.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the world around us, transforming how we work, how our economy grows, and how power is distributed in society. The decisions we make today will determine whether this transformation strengthens our democracy, expands opportunity, and secures America's leadership in the world.
For nearly two years, the Trump administration's approach to AI has been defined by a singular ambition: move fast, break everything, and win at all costs. In the process, a handful of wealthy tech executives and the companies they lead have been handed the pen to write the rules governing an industry with profound consequences for society and the world.
Meanwhile, workers, consumers, and communities have been told to trust that the benefits will eventually reach them, even as they shoulder many of the immediate costs.
The recent election made clear that this approach carries a growing political cost. AI and data center development emerged as consequential issues in campaigns and ballot measures across the country. In local contests spanning 10 states, voters favored greater restrictions on data center development in 40 of 41 ballot measure contests. And according to NBC exit polling, 56 percent of voters said AI and data centers were a major or crucial factor in their vote for Congress.
These concerns are not a rejection of innovation. They are a demand for a better vision of it. Communities are raising questions about the costs of data center expansion. Families are worried about rising energy bills, data privacy, and the impact of AI on their children. Workers are confronting uncertainty about what this technology means for their livelihoods. Meanwhile, the growing influence of billionaire technology executives over our political system has fueled a broader question: Who is AI being built to serve, and for what purpose?
Democrats have an opportunity to answer that question and chart a different course for American AI leadership: one that is ambitious about innovation, serious about safety, and committed to ensuring all Americans share in its benefits. Delivering on that vision requires more than winning a race to build the most powerful technology. It means building the energy, digital, economic, and human infrastructure that allows all Americans to benefit from it. That vision rests on three interconnected priorities.
Build AI that is safe, secure and accountable
American leadership must begin with ensuring that increasingly powerful AI systems serve human interests, democratic values, and the public good. People need to be able to trust that these systems behave as intended, remain reliable and secure, and can be held accountable when they cause harm. That means addressing growing threats from AI-enabled cyberattacks and malicious misuse, as well as the risks of autonomous systems making consequential decisions without meaningful human oversight.
Congress has an important role in building the capacity to meet these challenges. We must invest in the research, technical expertise, and institutions needed to identify emerging risks, strengthen our defenses, and protect critical infrastructure. And that capacity cannot stop at the federal level. State and local governments need the resources and expertise to evaluate AI systems, identify vulnerabilities, and prepare for threats that could disrupt essential services. Developers, in turn, must be expected to demonstrate that their systems meet rigorous standards for safety, security, and reliability before they are deployed in sensitive settings. Responsible AI development is not an obstacle to American leadership. It is what will make that leadership sustainable and worthy of public trust.
Build with and for the American People
The enormous demand for AI infrastructure also presents an opportunity to address challenges that have long faced communities across the country. Building the data centers and energy systems needed to support AI should go hand in hand with modernizing aging infrastructure, strengthening local energy and water systems, and making investments that improve resilience and quality of life for decades to come.
But those investments must reflect the needs and realities of the places where they are built. Communities should have a meaningful role in defining their own priorities and ensuring that the resources required to support AI also help address longstanding local challenges.
Realizing this opportunity will require modernizing the policies that govern how and where infrastructure gets built. Congress must advance meaningful permitting reform to remove unnecessary delays that stall infrastructure upgrades and drive up costs, while maintaining environmental protections and meaningful community input.
We must expand energy capacity by supporting clean energy and a diverse mix of reliable energy resources, modernize our electric grid, make strategic use of spectrum to support next-generation wireless networks, and continue bringing reliable, affordable high-speed broadband to every home and community.
These priorities cannot be pursued separately from the people and places they affect. Federal investments, energy policy, permitting, and spectrum decisions must work together, while state and local governments need the capacity to modernize utility planning, foster regional innovation, and protect ratepayers. American leadership in AI will be defined not by how quickly we build, but whether communities have a voice in shaping that development and share in its benefits. This moment calls for policymakers to establish an American model of AI development that strengthens our country and is built with and for the American people.
Put people at the center of the AI economy
Ultimately, the measure of American AI leadership should be whether people are better off because of it. That requires ensuring workers, families, students, and small businesses have both the opportunity to benefit from AI and the protections and support they need to navigate its challenges. It also means giving people a meaningful voice in how this technology is used in their workplaces, schools, and communities.
Today, Americans' digital rights and protections can vary significantly depending on where they live. Congress must establish a strong national floor of protections that gives people meaningful control over their personal data and safeguards them from scams, deceptive AI-generated content, manipulation, and harmful or discriminatory automated decisions.
We must also strengthen protections for children online, limiting the collection and exploitation of their personal data, addressing harmful content and predatory design, and holding platforms accountable when their products put young people at risk. The American people should not have to sacrifice their privacy or their children's well-being to participate in an increasingly digital world.
Democrats can ensure workers have a meaningful voice in how AI is introduced into the workplace and are protected from unfair automated management, intrusive surveillance, and the consequences of economic displacement. That means strengthening labor protections and modernizing the social safety net, including more accessible unemployment insurance, portable benefits, and stronger support for workers navigating job loss and career transitions.
It means investing in apprenticeships, community colleges, workforce development, and lifelong learning. And it means ensuring workers share in the value AI creates through greater economic security, new pathways to ownership and wealth-building, more flexibility and autonomy, and access to the opportunities created by a more productive economy.
For the next generation, AI should support teachers, strengthen student learning, and expand access to educational opportunities, not undermine the human relationships at the heart of education. American AI policy needs to protect student privacy, give parents and educators a meaningful role in decisions about these tools, and equip young people not just to use AI, but to understand it, critically evaluate its outputs, and help shape the technology themselves. Privacy, education, and economic security are not separate from technological leadership. They are the foundation for ensuring people have the confidence, skills, and opportunity to participate in and benefit from the AI economy.
The future we build
These three priorities cannot be pursued in isolation. Safe and secure AI depends on research, technical expertise, and the rules and institutions needed for responsible development. Competitive infrastructure requires modernizing our electric grid, expanding energy capacity through permitting reforms that support clean energy and a diverse mix of reliable resources, and strengthening the broadband and wireless networks that connect Americans to the digital economy.
And realizing AI's economic potential depends on ensuring that the people powering this transformation have the protections, skills, and opportunities to share in its benefits.
The election made clear that the Trump administration's approach to AI is not the future Americans want. Voters are calling for a different vision, one that puts the promise of innovation to work solving pressing problems, strengthening our economy, and improving people's lives. Democrats have an opportunity to meet that call by defining American AI leadership around what matters most to families: lowering costs, creating economic opportunity, and making it easier for people to build secure and prosperous lives on their own terms.
Realizing this vision will require strong public-private partnerships that bring together government, businesses, universities, workers, and communities to solve real-world problems. Government must set clear goals, protect the public interest, and ensure that the benefits of innovation are broadly shared. The private sector has an essential role in developing the technologies and solutions that help achieve them. Together, we can direct American innovation toward challenges that matter to people, from improving health care and education to strengthening manufacturing and modernizing public services.
The 120th Congress has an opportunity to turn this vision into a national agenda for American AI leadership. That means bringing the public and private sectors together around shared goals, while ensuring workers and communities have a meaningful voice in shaping how AI is developed and used. The future must be built with and for the American people, giving them not only the opportunity to benefit from this technology, but the confidence and power to shape what comes next. That is how the United States can compete, lead, and ensure that AI delivers on its promise.
Alex Roark is the CEO of the A-I Policy Forum, a national public-interest organization laying the foundation for an AI future in which every person, community, and institution has the knowledge, tools, and agency to shape how technology is designed, deployed, and governed. Alejandro previously served as a senior executive for the FCC where he led the teams responsible for establishing the first open record on the risks and benefits of AI, which led to the adoption of the first rules across the federal government to govern the use of AI within the context of American telecom. This Expert Opinion is Exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.
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