{"slug": "is-washington-up-to-the-challenge-of-a-i", "title": "Is Washington Up to the Challenge of A.I.?", "summary": "The Washington Roundtable, joined by AI safety expert Nate Soares, examines the growing political backlash against artificial intelligence, particularly among young Americans, and questions the U.S. government's ability to regulate AI companies. The discussion covers the White House's recent reversal on an AI-safety executive order, the influence of venture capitalists, and how AI could fuel a new populist movement. Soares notes that many protesters sense AI is driving society toward an undesirable future, either through existential risk or by creating a permanent underclass.", "body_md": "Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Wherever You Listen\nSign up to receive our twice-weekly News & Politics newsletter.\nThe Washington Roundtable discusses the growing political backlash to artificial intelligence, especially among young Americans, and asks whether Washington is capable of regulating A.I. companies. They’re joined by Nate Soares, the executive director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and co-author of the book “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.” The group explores what was behind the White House’s sudden reversal on an A.I.-safety executive order this week, the outsized influence of venture capitalists in the A.I. industry, and how A.I. may turbocharge the next populist movement in American politics. “My impression is that a lot of the people protesting data centers can sort of tell that this A.I. stuff is taking the world somewhere they don’t want,” Soares says. “They can tell that there’s this big corporate race that will either kill them or make them a permanent underclass.”\nThis week’s reading:\nTune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-washington-up-to-the-challenge-of-a-i", "canonical_source": "https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/is-washington-up-to-the-challenge-of-ai", "published_at": "2026-05-23 03:59:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-23 04:35:59.974320+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "policy-regulation", "venture-capital"], "entities": ["Nate Soares", "Machine Intelligence Research Institute", "White House"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-washington-up-to-the-challenge-of-a-i", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-washington-up-to-the-challenge-of-a-i.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-washington-up-to-the-challenge-of-a-i.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-washington-up-to-the-challenge-of-a-i.jsonld"}}