America at 250: From the Battle for Independence, to the Fight Over Artificial Intelligence

Micah Hanks·

Liberty America 250 artificial intelligence

Welcome to this special star-spangled edition of The Intelligence Brief… In this installment, as America celebrates its 250th birthday amid record-breaking summer heat and mounting pressure on the nation’s power grid, we take a broader look at the technological revolutions that have shaped the United States—and the artificial intelligence revolution now poised to redefine its future. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at 1) how successive innovations transformed American society over the past two and a half centuries, 2) why artificial intelligence may represent the next great technological leap, 3) the extraordinary scientific opportunities AI is already creating alongside the risks and disruptions it presents, and 4) why the choices we make today about this transformative technology could help determine the course of America’s next 250 years. 

Quote of the Week

“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

— Harry S. Truman

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America at 250: The Heat is On

Depending on where you are at the time you’re reading this, you may have noticed the temperature. Safe to say, summer has arrived.

One reason involves the “heat dome” that is covering much of the East Coast and the Midwest, with temperatures topping 100 degrees across large portions of the U.S., including the nation’s capital. As a result, the country’s power system is undergoing inevitable strain as extreme heat warnings have prompted grid operators to warn about surges in air-conditioning use throughout the nation, with many systems expected to operate less than optimally amid such temperatures.

All of this arrives just in time for America’s 250th birthday, with Independence Day celebrations falling on a weekend that is certain to be memorable for more than just the extreme heat, since this year’s celebration marks our nation’s semiquincentennial.

“Reaching 250 years is a significant event for any nation,” read a statement by the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute in honor of the forthcoming holiday. “It offers a chance to learn more about how the United States began, how it grew, and how it has changed over time. Every era of American history has shaped the present in some way, from early settlements to westward expansion, from war and invention to civic achievements and cultural growth.”

Something else that this special Independence Day offers us is an opportunity to reflect on how successive technological revolutions have influenced our nation’s growth since its inception, and where the cutting-edge technologies of today are likely to carry us going forward.

America’s Tradition of Technological Revolutions

We’ve come a long way since 1776. Back in the days during which the Declaration of Independence was signed, the speed of information was constrained to how fast a horse could carry its rider, or how strong the winds were that could propel a ship across water.

Under such conditions, pens and ink were used to preserve ideas on paper that could take weeks to make its way from locations like Philadelphia to other parts of the colonies. With such technological limitations, human political organization was similarly constrained.

Over the last two and a half centuries, we have seen most of those limitations fall away, with new inventions advancing progress, and eventually being overtaken by even newer, bolder ideas and inventions. Our steam engines helped remove geographic constraints, only to be replaced by aircraft, automobiles, and conveyances propelled by electrical power.

Similarly, the telegraph helped collapse the imposition of time that once hindered communication; its successors, like radio, the telephone, the Internet, Smartphones, and a host of other mobile communications technologies, have now placed instantaneous global communication at our fingertips.

And now we are on the cusp of another great American technological transition: one that very likely will rival any that came before it.

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

It is difficult to even compare artificial intelligence to any other potentially revolution-inducing technology in our nation’s history. As America turns 250 and we look back on the progress that has brought us to the present day, one must also wonder how history will look back on the advent of this technology: will we recognize the implementation of AI as another innovation that breaks significant barriers that constrained human achievement, as time and geography once did?

Or will the advent of AI be remembered differently? Science fiction affords us alternative scenarios that most of us are quite familiar with already, and the real possibility that AI could spell trouble for us in the years ahead remains ever-present. Where things go from here, understandably, has a lot to do with the question of what humans choose to use this technology for, and how we go about implementing it.

Yes, scientific progress is accelerating, and AI is helping with that. Discoveries are arriving faster not only because scientists are working harder, but because the tools they’re using—especially AI—are helping them achieve more, and increasing our productivity and overall capability to levels that dramatically exceed what humans alone can do.

From the design of new proteins in the lab and the identification of obscure exoplanets within mountains of astronomical data, to the acceleration of materials science and a range of other fields, much of what we are seeing AI help us achieve right now bears the promise of a brighter future. But should that hopeful vision for a better future be taken for granted?

There are obvious reasons for caution, since virtually every major technological revolution brings not only opportunities, but also disruption. New sources of technology replace old ones, and thereby require new skills to be leveraged. The result of this obsolescence often extends to those in the workforce whose expertise once propelled these predecessor technologies; once the technologies have fallen out of use (sometimes with remarkable speed), the human workers once tasked with building them are left having to find new professions.

Myriad examples of similar past technological scenarios exist that encourage such concerns. Nuclear physics gave us clean energy, but also nuclear weapons; the internet connected billions of people—and each day, it enables the spread of misinformation into our homes, along with the potential for unwarranted surveillance and cybercrime.

AI will almost certainly follow a similar pattern to every other major technological revolution that America, and the world at large, has ever seen. So the question isn’t one of whether it will change our society: we already know the answer to that.

The question here has more to do with how we will use this technology, and what we will allow it to do for us—and to us—as it progresses.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp’s Interesting CNBC Interview

To conclude on a somewhat odd, yet also an extremely relevant note in the context of what we’re discussing here, some interesting exchanges aired recently on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” during a live segment featuring Palantir CEO Alex Karp.

Anyone who watches this will understand both the relevance, as well as my choice in characterizing it as “odd,” given the strange, rambling nature of Karp’s interview (admittedly, some have been a bit less gracious in how they’ve characterized the recent appearance).

Rather than discussing Palantir and Nvidia’s recent work for the United States government in assembling its new AI infrastructure, Karp appeared to have something else on his mind: the looming prospect of a financial bubble underlying the current boom in AI technology.

“Something has gone completely wrong,” Karp said at one point during one of the rambling exchanges, where he appeared to be addressing the token model currently employed by leading AI companies amid rising costs, as industry leaders continue to seek returns on investment.

“The basic view among enterprises in this country is I’m going to chillax and waste my time with tokens,” Karp said. In another portion of the diatribe, Karp aired his concerns about how current AI models have been “irresponsibly” oversold, which he called “dangerous for everyone, which is why I can give [AI] to all your adversaries but I can’t give it to the Department of War, or I can’t safely give it to an enterprise in this country, without being certain that the Alpha of that business could transfer to this model tomorrow, i.e. I have no business, no job.”

When chided by host Becky Quick for sounding angry, Karp shot back that “This is the voice of American business that is being channeled through me.”

“Are we really going to outsource the battlefield of this country to the consensus view in Silicon Valley?” Karp also said at one point. “That is effing insane.” The entire segment can be watched here.

Uncertainty is Our Business

Although Karp’s interview was odd, to say the least, the Palantir CEO raises some important points, and as evidenced by his demeanor during the CNBC segment, much of what he discussed appears to be weighing heavily on him.

It would be safe to say that he’s probably not the only one in Silicon Valley right now experiencing a degree of unrest and uncertainty over such issues, as the current situation with AI technologies in America and around the world progresses onward into uncertain territory.

Fortunately, America’s history shows that a major driving factor in its progress has been the conviction that the next horizon is worth pursuing, even when it’s uncertain.

Yes, the unforeseeable consequences of these nascent technologies, like AI, can be sobering at times.  While it seems inevitable that the same driving forces that have driven past industrial revolutions will also drive humans to build smarter, and increasingly more powerful machines, hopefully, we will also remember that wisdom is required in knowing how to use them.

If we can do that, then perhaps America’s progress can continue for another 250 years, and the technologies we are innovating in the present day can indeed help us to build a brighter future for tomorrow.

That concludes this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief. You can read past editions of our newsletter at our website, or if you found this installment online, don’t forget to subscribe and get future email editions from us here. Also, if you have a tip or other information you’d like to send along directly to me, you can email me at micah [@] thedebrief [dot] org, or reach me on X: @MicahHanks.

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