A version of this story appeared in the daily Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each weekday.
OPINION:
Artificial intelligence isn’t a sideshow. It’s not just another Silicon Valley gadget or app for early adopters. AI is rapidly becoming the infrastructure of modern life, and its influence is growing faster than anything we have seen before.
Although it’s tempting to lump AI with previous technological revolutions such as TV, the smartphone and social media, these comparisons miss what’s really at stake. This time, the technology isn’t merely enhancing human activity; it’s beginning to replace it.
If conservatives continue treating AI as a niche concern or dismiss it as a left coast distraction, they are forfeiting the ability to shape the ethical, legal and political boundaries of a world already being built around us.
Here are five critical truths conservatives must urgently recognize about artificial intelligence.
AI is a force multiplier
There’s a popular myth that every generation overreacts to new technology, but AI doesn’t belong in the same category as the cotton gin or the telephone. This isn’t just about doing tasks faster or more efficiently. AI performs cognitive labor that once required years of education and training, such as writing contracts, debugging software, crafting marketing campaigns and analyzing medical data.
It’s improving fast. Tools such as GPT-4, Claude and Gemini already showcase capabilities that rival and sometimes surpass human professionals. AI can be used to write articles, legal briefs, code and many other things at a level beyond that of a typical person — and it is only getting better.
We’re not watching a linear progression; we’re watching a rocket launch. If we think society will have time to “ease into” this transition, we’re deluding ourselves.
AI is already incredibly smart
It’s easy to mock AI as a fancy autocomplete or a parlor trick that spits out formulaic content with errors. That’s yesterday’s argument. Today’s frontier systems outperform the average human on complex tasks, standardized tests and creative challenges. They are designing products, generating strategy memos and even helping diagnose health problems.
Seemingly every week, OpenAI, Elon’s X, Google or Anthropic releases a new model that sets a higher bar for artificial intelligence. Regular testing of these models by organizations such as Tracking AI shows they already exceed the IQ of average human intelligence.
Whether AI ever becomes “self-aware” is beside the point. Its capabilities right now are enough to restructure entire industries and workflows, and they are already doing so. The genie is out of the bottle and is evolving faster than regulators or cultural institutions can respond.
AI will be disruptive to society
A common argument is that AI is no different from past technological disruptions. Just as the sewing machine and the automobile displaced certain jobs but created new ones, many believe AI will follow a similar trajectory. That belief offers comfort, but it may be dangerously naive.
AI isn’t about just replacing cashiers or factory workers. It can potentially replace lawyers, teachers, analysts, marketers, editors, journalists and many other so-called white-collar professions. Once seen as stable and future-proof, the knowledge economy is now squarely on the chopping block.
Past industrial disruptions unfolded over decades, but AI is on track to remake the workforce in just a few years. Studies from Goldman Sachs and other organizations forecast job losses in the tens of millions. We’re not talking about just automation; we’re talking about AI becoming the brains of entire operations, including logistics, customer support and creative development.
Opting out is not an option
You may think you can avoid the AI revolution by choosing not to participate. In the past, many resisted the allure of the internet, decided not to get a smartphone or abstained from creating social media accounts. Despite your best attempts, you cannot prevent AI from changing your world.
AI will be embedded into banking systems, school curricula, medical diagnostics, government planning tools and the algorithms behind every screen. These systems won’t just assist; they will influence decisions, dictate outcomes and increasingly operate without human oversight. AI will determine who qualifies for a mortgage, how students are graded, what medical treatments are suggested and even how government programs are managed.
Even if you never touch an AI app, it will touch you. It will decide what products you see, which news stories appear in your feed and how public services are delivered. Once AI becomes woven into the foundations of daily life, society and individuals alike will become increasingly dependent upon it.
AI can be manipulated
Some people believe AI systems are similar to that of a computer or even a pocket calculator. They think that when they plug in 2+2 and hit “equals,” the objective answer, “4,” will pop up, but AI systems don’t arrive in the world value-neutral. They are trained on data curated by humans, and their responses are shaped by political, cultural and ideological assumptions.
We have already seen this in action. Google’s AI, Gemini, garnered headlines when it generated images of culturally diverse Nazis and black Founding Fathers when asked to produce images of these time frames. Google acknowledged that the model overshot its objective of producing more inclusive images.
On the more chilling end of the spectrum, Chinese models seemed to be programmed to suppress any mention of state-sanctioned atrocities. China’s DeepSeek AI refused to produce answers to prompts having to do with the Tiananmen Square massacre, the slave camps in Xinjiang, or anything perceived as critical of the Chinese Communist Party or Xi Jinping. In the name of “inclusion” or “stability,” these systems can essentially outline the boundaries of acceptable thought.
If we allow ideological monocultures in Big Tech or authoritarian governments to define the rules, AI will become an engine of invisible coercion, nudging behaviors, filtering speech and reinforcing dominant narratives, all while pretending to be objective.
This is not a niche issue for futurists or coders. It’s a defining challenge for anyone who believes in human dignity, free thought and decentralized power. AI is not just a technical marvel; it’s a lever that could reshape culture, economics and governance.
Conservatives have a responsibility to engage, not to halt innovation but to guide it. If we don’t help define the moral limits of AI, others will do it for us, and their vision may not include liberty, transparency or individual rights.
The clock is ticking. If we want a future built on human freedom, we must act before the systems that shape tomorrow are locked into place.
• Donald Kendal (dkendal@heartland.org) is the director of the Emerging Issues Center at The Heartland Institute. Follow @EmergingIssuesX.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.