North Carolina Must Adapt To AI

By John Hood

RALEIGH — Am I a compulsive technophile who gleefully adopts every new invention or device that hits the market? You be the judge: Not so many years ago, my long-suffering wife insisted that I get rid of my Betamax machine and the dozens of tapes I had dutifully stored in our shed.

I’m no weekend picker or late-night tinkerer. My plan wasn’t to corner some collector’s market or prep for some post-apocalyptic hellscape. I just liked my Betamax and figured that someday I’d get around to watching old episodes of Star Trek or Mystery Science Theater 3000 I’d recorded decades ago. “But you can just stream them!” I was told. “It’s not the same!” I insisted.

Now, it will hardly shock you to discover that I’m no passionate devotee of artificial intelligence. I have purchased no subscriptions and trained no agents. I manage my own calendar, workflow, and inbox. I’ve never used AI to draft or even edit my writing. The next time I teach a university class, I’m junking most of my former writing assignments in favor of classroom discussion and blue-book exams. Other than AI-assisted browser searches, which I glance it but rarely trust, I have scant experience using the technology and feel little inclination to change that.

Nevertheless, I see AI as a promising opportunity to boost productivity, democratize information, solve problems, cure diseases, and bring a wide variety of wonderful new goods and services to market. I recognize its costs and risks, as well — more about them in a moment — but see no alternative but for companies in North Carolina, the U.S., and the rest of the free world to stay at its cutting edge. Autocrats, terrorists, and nihilists are going to attempt to use AI for nefarious ends. The only effective defenses will themselves be AI-powered.

Here in North Carolina, our policymakers lack the legal authority and technical capacity to slow the development of AI even if that were wise. What we can do is ensure that our education system, legal and regulatory environment, and physical infrastructure are prepared to handle what is coming.

On education, there should be a clear distinction between teaching students how to use AI as a productivity tool and allowing AI to supplant the delivery of a rigorous education in reading, writing, history, and STEM. We don’t merely train our students to become workers. We educate them to become thinkers and creators. And we coach them to become resourceful parents, respectful neighbors, and responsible citizens. That still requires students to read and write on their own, because the outcome we care about isn’t an essay or test. It is a well-developed mind and well-cultivated soul.

Our colleges and universities need to retool themselves to help students navigate an uncertain future and enter new occupations as AI automates existing tasks and skills. Careful research does not yet reveal significant job losses from AI adoption but history, informed projections, and common sense argue for prudent preparation. Every technological revolution that elevated human wellbeing in the long run — agricultural, commercial, industrial, and informational — eliminated some economic and social roles while creating others. AI will surely do the same.

Regarding infrastructure, the hot topic in North Carolina and elsewhere is the proliferation of data centers. While limiting noise and ensuring adequate power and water capacity are reasonable goals, implacable opposition is incapable with the continued growth and development of our state. I don’t know how much of the online panic about data centers is stoked by foreign actors. I do know that it serves their financial and military interests.

What might a future AI-powered world look like? Science-fiction writers have spent much of the past century speculating about it. Isaac Asimov’s robot novels have much to say, for example. I’m planning to reread them soon, or at least enjoy some of the audio and video adaptations — copies of which are among the hundreds of cassette and VHS tapes I still keep in my basement.

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).