40th Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Talks AI and US Workforce

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**Carol Massar** (0:07)
So Google, keep in mind, was one of Anthropics' earliest investors, repeatedly buying equity in the AI firm. And as Emily mentioned, it's increasingly now backstopping the financing that underpins those data centers for the startup. So underscoring that complex business ties among the handful of largest tech companies pouring money into AI.
Folks, it's AI's world, and we're just revolving around it. And that brings us to our next guest. Let's get to it with former US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo. She served as the 40th US Secretary of Commerce and 75th Governor of the state of Rhode Island. She joins us from Washington, DC. Secretary Raimondo, so nice to have you here with Emily and myself. I want to get right to it because I feel like every conversation, we talk about artificial intelligence, the build out, the spend, but increasingly about the impact on the labor force globally and here in the United States. You recently responded to a comment on X by Meta Platform's Vice Chairman, Deena Powell. She was announcing Meta's launch of a program to provide paid training, certification, and a job for Americans of all backgrounds to be part of building American leadership in the world. Your response, you say many Americans face a catch-22. They need training to get a new higher paying job, but they can't go without pay to attend a training course and that this initiative aims to solve this problem with paid apprenticeships and credentials that lead to actual available goods, good jobs, I should say.
When it comes to AI and the impact on jobs, how do you see it and is Meta on the right track?

**Gina Raimondo** (1:37)
Well, first of all, good afternoon and thank you for having me.
I am an AI forward person. I think that the US does and needs to continue to lead in this global AI competition. That means, of course, being ahead with the technology, but it also means having a strategy for people. We're not going to win the global AI race if we have great technology and sky-high unemployment. I think it's time for the country to get very serious about changing the way we support people when they change jobs, and the way we train people.
The thing that I like about, because we have to bring all Americans along, this cannot just be AI for the big tech and not bring everyone along. And so with this announcement, as I understand what MED is doing here, the thing I really liked about it was they're paying people while they do the training. And I know from when I was governor, I was a leader in a lot of these apprenticeship and training programs. People can't afford to do a six week or six month training program and not get paid, right? They're not going to finish that training program. So to the extent I've heard about this, like you said, I read about it yesterday. I think it's first, I think it's good that companies in America are stepping up to say, let's get innovative and try to support workers. But I think it's important to say, we're going to pay you while you get trained. And if you graduate and if you get your credential, there will be a job at the end of that training.

**Emily Graffeo** (3:17)
Secretary, you wrote a guest essay for the New York Times earlier this year. It was entitled, America Cannot Withstand the Economic Shock That's Coming. What do you think the country, the Trump administration and lawmakers from both parties really need to do to address this very much feared economic and labor disruption that AI is expected to unleash?

**Gina Raimondo** (3:43)
We have to prepare for it. I think it is a transition. I do believe AI will create new jobs.
Every technology has created disruption and job loss, but over time, new jobs, new industries, many, many, many, many millions of jobs in our economy today did not exist even 20, 30 years ago. So I think we're going to get to that place. However, there will be a transition. And I worry that during that transition, if we're not thoughtful and purposeful, too many Americans could be on the losing end of that transition.
And so we need to get very serious right now and create new training initiatives like the one we're talking about. But that is not enough. Training is not enough. We need new incentives for companies to redeploy people. We need new, you know, like a new safety net to help people transition from one job to the next. And so I think this calls for some pretty urgent action with the government, with employers. You know, it's an all hands on deck moment to create a people strategy to get us through this transition.