ICYMI: Kelly Discusses His AI for America Roadmap in Live Conversation with Semafor

In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined Semafor yesterday for their "AI Safety in the Era of Superintelligence" live event to discuss AI for America, his roadmap to make AI work for all Americans, not just a few big companies. Kelly talked about the exciting opportunities to grow the economy, the need to protect workers as AI expands, and the importance of the U.S. deploying world-leading AI innovations both safely and responsibly.

Sen. Kelly speaks with Semafor's Burgess Everett during the event.

Photo: Kris Triplaar/Semafor.

See key excerpts below:

On AI's potential and why we need the AI for America roadmap…

"If we get it right-sometimes we don't always get everything right-but if can we can get this right, we can grow the economy, we can create more jobs, we can solve some of the world's hardest problems in medicine, chemistry, material science, physics, biology, biotech… the hardest things that we have probably had no hope in solving in the next 50 years, we could figure out in the next five, and that's where, that's why this could be a big win.

But we've got to be thoughtful about it. We've got to have guardrails. We've got to have the money available to do some of these things, and then we have to have the infrastructure in place to make sure that this doesn't hurt people."

On protecting workers as AI grows…

"There's this tremendous upside that people should be excited about. Every time we have had a new technology that increased worker productivity, we have grown the economy, and we've created more jobs. […] I think that if we don't focus on workers and don't put some guardrails in place and start some programs to train people for new jobs-there are some jobs we don't even know are going to exist-we could see millions of people laid off here by the end of the decade."

On the infrastructure needs of AI…

"We need to dramatically increase the amount of energy we have available, or, if we just start connecting people up, rates are going to skyrocket for small businesses and individuals and homeowners. We can't allow that to happen."

Read the full AI for America plan here.