AI vs. MAGA: Populists alarmed by Trump’s embrace of AI, Big Tech

Flanked by Silicon Valley’s most powerful executives in the White House, First Lady Melania Trump hailed artificial intelligence as potentially “the greatest engine of progress in the history of the United States of America.” Less than a mile from the first lady, in a hotel ballroom packed with MAGA faithful, Sen Josh Hawley (R-MO) had a different message. AI “threatens the common man’s liberty” and could even undermine the Republic itself, he said.  “The problem with the AI revolution as it’s currently going is that it only entrenches the power of the people who are already the most powerful people in the world,” he said. “The goal is to replace... the farmer, the assembly line man, the construction worker.” Sen Hawley is a frequent critic of Big Tech. But his comments are endorsed by a growing chorus on America’s right—even as President Donald Trump’s administration scraps regulatory barriers and accelerates AI’s adoption across the land. It presages an unexpected clash at the heart of the MAGA world.