Vance suggests Americans shouldn't fear AI or other new tech

Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday said America shouldn’t be suspicious of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Mr. Vance, speaking at the American Dynamism Summit in Washington, D.C., said populists and tech-focused bosses could exist in the same sphere.

He noted that following his speech at a conference in Paris last month, a reporter suggested his remarks highlighted tension between the “techno-optimists and the populist right of President Trump’s coalition.”

Mr. Vance said, “I’d like to speak to these tensions as a proud member of both tribes. And let me put it simply: While this is a well-intentioned concern, I think it’s based on a faulty premise.”

He continued, “This idea that tech-forward people and the populace are somehow inevitably going to come to loggerheads is wrong.”

Mr. Vance, a former tech venture capitalist, said he thought there was “too much fear that AI will simply replace jobs, rather than augmenting so many of the things that we do now.”

He pointed to the invention of the automatic teller machine that became a staple within the banking industry. 

“In the 1970s if you go back a little ways, many feared that the automated teller machine, what we call the ATM, would replace bank tellers,” he said.

“In reality, the advent of the ATM made bank tellers more productive, and you have more people today working in customer service in the financial sector than you had when the ATM was created.”

According to the American Enterprise Institute, the advent of the enormous growth of ATMs in the 1990s had a remarkable impact on jobs. 

An average bank branch in an urban area needed 21 tellers, but that was reduced because of the ATM to 13 tellers.

It also meant banks were cheaper to operate, so more branches opened and the demand for more tellers at those banks increased.

Mr. Vance said, “Of course, yes, they’re doing more interesting tasks also, and importantly, they’re making more money than they were in the 1970s.”

The vice president told the tech leaders that American workers are rightfully suspicious about their jobs being in danger by advances in big tech because American manufacturing jobs were offshored too often.

“Based on what they’ve seen in the past, they are very worried about the future, because, frankly, their leadership has failed to serve them,” he said.

“From the perspective of a lot of the tech optimists, I think a lot of the tech optimists, they see overregulation, they see stifling innovation. You guys are builders. They are builders. And while they may sympathize with those who lost a job, they’re much more frustrated that the government won’t allow them to build the jobs of the future.”

Mr. Vance said both groups were failed by the government the past 40 years and that the current administration aims to change that — with trade and tariff policy that brings more manufacturing and technology jobs back to U.S. soil and by ousting migrants while securing the country’s borders.

“Last month, migrant crossings were down 94% to their lowest number all time, and that happened just in two months of serious border enforcement, thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” he said. “Last month, for the first time in over a year, the majority of job gains went to American citizens, born on U.S. soil.”

Additionally, he said the administration has taken action to cut “input costs” for U.S. manufacturers and other businesses by reducing the price of energy, so the “cost of a barrel of U.S. crude is way down.”