Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Talks AI Race

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:07)
Let's turn to this, the AI buildout growing as a political flashpoint, New York State leading the pushback, becoming the first in the nation to issue a moratorium on new hyperscaled data centers. PJM, the largest grid operator in the country, saying data centers have increased supply cost by more than 60%.
The former US Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, is leading RAISE US, a non-partisan organization designed to help the American labor force adapt to AI. The Secretary joins us now for more. Madam Secretary, welcome to the program. Let's just start the conversation with the kind of work you're doing and what we need to know this morning.

**Gina Raimondo** (0:40)
Good morning. Good morning. So RAISE US is the new organization that I am leading, and our mission is very simple. We want the US to lead the global AI competition, but to have a strategy so that every American worker gets brought along. And right now, we're not headed down that path, and it's something I'm deeply worried about. We have extremely outdated infrastructure, social insurance, support for workers, incentives for companies to retrain and redeploy instead of just laying people off. And so I think it's time that we get to work. We're working with governors of both parties. This is a non-partisan, non-political effort with companies.
And just trying to find some creative, innovative solutions, because I will tell you, one of my greatest worries is even if America has the best chips, the best models, the most data centers, but doesn't have an intentional plan to manage this transition and falls into a period of very high unemployment, we will lose the AI race because that will be too destabilizing.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:52)
What's your reaction, though, to what New York Governor Kathy Hockel is doing in terms of the moratorium, because this potentially can slow down how quickly the US can advance in the AI space?

**Gina Raimondo** (2:04)
Right. So I think this is a perfect example of what we're trying to do, which is to say Americans are worried, right? They're worried, but when the average American hears AI, what they hear is, I'm going to lose my job, my electricity prices are going up, my kids won't have a job, just spent money for college.
Those are real, legitimate, valid anxieties and we have to find solutions to address them. So while I don't think, like no one is happier than the president of China, that we are slowing down data center construction. That being said, it's not okay if people's electricity bills are going up or people's water bills are going up, or people's economic security is going down because of AI companies. So we must find a way to do both, steam ahead with data centers and technology, and make sure these companies pay their fair share, so other folks' electricity bills don't go up, and people have, frankly, a job, a meaningful job in an AI economy.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:16)
You recently wrote an opinion piece where you said, peony is a new grand bargain between the public and private sectors. When it comes to AI, what do you make of the Trump administration looking at taking equity stakes? Another version of industrial policy that some of which started under the Biden administration.

**Gina Raimondo** (3:34)
Yes. So, listen, I do think it is a good idea for the American people and the American government to share in the extreme profit and commercial benefit of AI. That being said, I personally have always been a bit of a critic on the government taking big equity shares of companies. I'm still a believer in capitalism, however many flaws it has right now and the way it's playing out in America.
The government owning the means of production is the definition of socialism. I think it creates a lot of potential for corruption. So I think the intention is a good intention. Personally, I just get very nervous if we're stepping down a path of a state-owned enterprise, etc. So I'd like to find another way.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:35)
How do you balance the idea of trying to create a sort of pact with the US worker, with the US average citizen, while also maintaining a US edge versus China, right? I mean, do you want to sort of create this sense that there is isolation between the two stacks? I just wonder what the ultimate goal is, what the approach you're hearing from some of the folks you're speaking with.

**Gina Raimondo** (4:59)
You know, I think if you talk to the tech companies in AI, many of whom are partners with us and raise us, they feel that they're in a global arms race to get ahead of each other and also get ahead of China and other technologies. And I understand that. But I will say this.