Self-Help in the Age of AI and Trump
What exactly is the Trump Administration up to? Fans will say Trump is just keeping his campaign promises: dramatically decreasing the federal bureaucracy, starting with its most liberal elements; ending the Russo-Ukraine War; making America great again by, among many things, revitalizing manufacturing; ending illegal immigration and sending the undocumented packing. We may or may not agree with any or all of these initiatives, but we can’t deny that this is what the majority of American voters cast their ballots to get. Opponents will reply that we are in the midst of a coup d’etat, characterized by illegally gutting the federal workforce; flaunting the theoretically co-equal judiciary branch; illegally rounding up legal along with illegal immigrants and denying them all due process; squelching free speech by threats, intimidation and the withholding of federal funds. I myself have waved the warning flag concerning a coup.
For now, I’m putting my yellow warning flag in my back pocket. Let’s unpush the big, red panic button. Let’s assume that when Trump said yesterday he would obey the courts, he meant it. Let’s assume he is only striving to fulfill his campaign promises, and that he isn’t aiming at becoming the next Putin or Ji. If this is our “best case” scenario, what does it portend? And what should we, who are on the other side of the aisle, be preparing to do?
Climate Change. Welcome to the new era of drill, drill, drill. If the Administration wins its way, padlocked coal plants will reopen. The internal combustion engine will realize a Renaissance at the expense of electric vehicles. (What this means for Musk and Tesla, I can’t guess. But a little birdy told me that Elon won’t be risking his fortune.) The earth’s average temperature will continue to rise. Extreme weather events will become the norm.
What’s to be done? My answer is “build better.” Homo sapiens has adapted to all climates from the frozen north to the simmering south. We have earthquake-proofed our west coast cities. Holland has held back the North Sea. New shore homes, post-Hurricane Sandy, on the Jersey Shore are up on stilts. Insurance carriers can, and often already do, insist that rebuilding be better. Partly it’s location, location, location. And partly it’s eschewing stick-built homes framed out in soft woods, that favor large living spaces over sturdier construction.
Look here. Not all the cute Scandinavian kids on the planet can stop global warming. Maybe they never could. But certainly not in the Age of Trump. (And let’s remember: Trump may leave office peacefully in 2029. That’s no guarantee his policies will be reversed.) If I’m right that climate change is inevitable and irreversible. then doesn’t it make sense to expend our billions on building better, rather than wasting them on a quixotic crusade that is doomed to nose dive?
Before you answer, consider this: In the Age of AI (which will outlast the Age of Trump by many decades), job creation is no small consideration. Building better and maintaining our infrastructure investments will create many a good job, from manufacturing to construction to maintenance. I don’t see robots dominating this enterprise.
Artificial Intelligence. Speaking of robots —- and who isn’t these days?—— here’s what Veep JD Vance had to say just the other day: “I think there’s too much fear that AI will simply replace jobs rather than augmenting so many of the things that we do now.” He allowed as how some jobs would be eliminated. He likened it to bank tellers’ lost positions in the wake of the ATM. That’s a bit like comparing a nuclear bomb to a cherry bomb. But never you mind that. My point is that the Trump White House will do nothing to regulate AI. To the contrary, Trump and Co. will be pushing AI advances as hard as possible… and aiming to profit from these advances. (Oh, gosh. Maybe that’s why Musk apparently isn’t so concerned about the Tesla. Maybe that’s past tense.)
As with climate change, so with AI, we are on our own. All the blather about AI governance is yet another waste of precious time and resources. We need to figure out how to cope with AI, because, like super storms, it’s blowing our way, whether we welcome it or not. So… let’s find solutions.
For the past few years, I have been offering two perennially-popular webinars to my colleagues in higher education: “How to Write a ChatGPT Policy for Your Syllabus” and “How to Write a ChatGPT Policy for Your Higher Education Institution.” These webinars include practical strategies and tactics, such as pedagogy that makes student cheating difficult, if not impossible. I’ve argued that profs can actually use ChatGPT to handle the “scutt” work, such as writing and grading quizzes, freeing the faculty to do more one-on-one, face-to-face teaching and assessment that moots academic-integrity concerns. It takes an investment of serious sweat-equity, but it ain’t rocket science.
In fact, you might say that it’s another example of “building better.” Building a better course, rather than a better house.
Other self-help solutions to the AI threat to our jobs and professions include collective bargaining and individual employment contracts that protect our positions and our intellectual property. To win such concessions from profit-driven corporations, we need leverage. Sweat equity is demanded of us once again.
“I Am Not Content”. If you have your grammar hat on, you recognize that this phrase is a double-entendre. It’s also the title of a new Substack monthly newsletter, begun in January 2025 by my daughter and colleague Claire Holland and me. It’s the flagship publication of our International Artificial Intelligence Association, which we have styled a think tank in reaction to the onslaught of AI.
Many opponents of AI are out there. We hope to distinguish ourselves by (1) focusing on the impact of AI on the arts and education, and (2) offering practical tactics that our readers can apply to their situations.
As should be (as my old mother would have said) as plain as the nose on your face, the thrust of this blog is also twofold: (1) in our atomized society of turbo-charged capitalism, we are on our own; don’t look for Uncle Sam to be of any help, and (2) there is much we as individuals and private organizations (such as unions) can do to take care of ourselves. This requires knowledge and the will to apply it. We are here to help.
