PODCAST: Why is half of America scared of AI?

AI is supposed to change everything. Cure diseases. Write code. Maybe even answer your emails.

But across America, a lot of voters are looking at AI and thinking: hold on a second.

In this episode of Searching for America, Robyn Curnow explores why suspicion of AI is popping up in two places that rarely agree on anything: among Republican voters and young liberal Americans. One group worries Silicon Valley is programming the machines with its own worldview. The other worries the machines are coming for their first job out of college.

After recently taking an AI course at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s business school, Robyn tries to make sense of the moment – somewhere between cutting-edge research and a conversation with an HVAC technician who calmly explained that the “devil’s number” is hidden inside computer chips.

There are also some very practical questions: giant data centres, rising electricity demand, and whether your power bill might one day be training a chatbot.

America built the technology of the future. Now it’s trying to decide if it actually trusts it.

Welcome to the national debate between the algorithms … and the voters.

Robyn Curnow’s podcast, “Searching for America”, examines the US from her outsider perspective – as a South African living in the American South. 

You can also watch the podcast on YouTube and sign up for her free weekly newsletter or Substack here.

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