The New York Times reports:

It was early November, and the stock market had grown jittery as investors recoiled anew over the enormous bets the nation’s largest technology companies had placed on artificial intelligence.

But the skittishness playing out on Wall Street that day barely registered at the White House. Asked whether he harbored any fears about an emerging bubble, one that could damage the economy if it were to pop, President Trump brushed aside all doubts.
“No,” he quickly replied, “I love A.I.”

For Mr. Trump, there is no risk, only reward, posed by the dawning and disruptive new age of computing. Over the past year, the president and his top aides have fully embraced A.I., and showered its leading corporate backers with money and regulatory support, as the administration looks to supercharge one of the primary areas of growth in an otherwise precarious U.S. economy.

That optimism was on display on Tuesday, after the federal government reported that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of more than 4 percent last quarter. Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told CNBC that the new data indicated that the president’s broader agenda was working as he touted the signs of a “boom” in A.I.

The administration’s unqualified support contrasts starkly with the more cautious tone struck by economists and even some technologists in Silicon Valley. Many still question whether A.I. might cause significant job losses, at least temporarily, and fret over the speed and methods that have allowed the industry to grow in ways that may not be sustainable and could risk financial havoc.

The White House has largely waved off many of those concerns. Instead, Mr. Trump, who has long viewed the stock market as a barometer of his economic success, has courted and celebrated the soaring stock prices of major technology companies like Nvidia. The stock market once again notched a record on Tuesday, propelled by tech companies with ties to A.I.

“Generative A.I. is a potential game changer for productivity and the economy,” said Glenn Hubbard, who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the George W. Bush administration. He described the technology as a “big plus.”

But, he said, that was not to suggest that there were no economic and political constraints — in the ways A.I. is being financed, in the impact it is having on communities and on the jobs that artificial intelligence may replace.

“A.I. is happening rapidly, and we didn’t help people cope with globalization and technological change very well over a 30- and 40-year period,” Mr. Hubbard explained. “We’re probably not going to do it again.”

Policymakers across Washington generally agree that A.I. portends generational change, with vast implications for everything from medical research to warfare. That has helped spark an investment boom in computing, and a burst of new growth for the broader economy, which Mr. Trump has tried to maximize.

Through a series of executive orders, signed over the last 11 months, Mr. Trump has moved to eliminate regulatory guardrails and make it easier for tech companies to build data centers, power their operations, sell computer chips and source critical materials. He has done so under the advisement of David Sacks, a Silicon Valley investor now serving at the White House, who has publicly likened A.I. skeptics to a “doomer cult.” [Continue reading…]

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