While Mike Rogers Looks To Get Rich Off AI And Data Centers, Abdul Calls For Pause In AI Development

Abdul On CBS’ Face The Nation: AI Risks Should “Send A Shudder Down All Of Our Spines,” And Calls For Pause In AI Development Until We Can Ensure It Is “Done Safely” 

Meanwhile… Mike Rogers Has Up To $2.6 Million Invested In Companies That Stand To Profit From AI Boom

Rogers Criticizes AI Safety Calls As “Fearmongering” — “I’m In A Company That Uses AI”

MICHIGAN –  As calls continue to grow for new AI safety regulations—including from the CEOs of both Anthropic and OpenAI—the contrast couldn’t be more stark in the Michigan Senate race. 

This morning in an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed spoke with host Weijia Jiang about his call for a pause in AI development and passing guardrails as outlined in his AI Under Democracy plan, including the creation of “public agency focused directly on the safety of AI”: 

“[We] are seeing the pace of technological development outpace the pace of safety. If you had public oversight over this, in the form of democratically elected or appointed members of at least 50% of all of these public trust corporations, you would imagine that they’d act far more focused on what is in the public good rather than what is for the private benefit of a few billionaires. 

“And that’s what we’re proposing. This would allow the best of technological innovation to continue forward while making sure that there are guardrails. But this isn’t the only part of our plan. We also think that we need a public agency focused directly on the safety of AI, and there need to be AI no-go’s. 

“AI shouldn’t be able to deny you healthcare. It shouldn’t be able to deny you a job. It shouldn’t be able to fire you. It shouldn’t be able to fire a weapon. There are things that we should not be using AI to do, and we collectively have to decide that we need public oversight so that all of this technology is not being created for the interests of a few against the well-being of the many. 

“And, you know, I don’t have to bring this up. I know you already spoke about this, but that Hugging Face situation where you had a few AIs hop their sandbox and then hack a website—that should send a shudder down all of our spines. We need to act, and we need to act now. So, we’ve also been calling for a pause on any of this frontier AI research until we can assure that this is being done safely.”

Meanwhile… Mike Rogers has dismissed concerns about AI, calling it “fearmongering” while he has  millions invested in companies that stand to profit from  AI and data centers.

  • Mike Rogers has dismissed concerns from young people that AI could create job losses, saying, “I’m in a company right now that uses A.I., so I’m sure they’re terrifying you young students, that A.I. is going to kill you, and take your job, and stuff you in a trunk, right? Oh man, the fearmongering of all of that A.I. stuff,”

Rogers’ latest financial disclosure shows up to millions of dollars in investments in tech companies that are benefitting from the AI and data center boom: 

  • Rogers “holds between $1.7 million and $2.6 million in companies” and stands to financially benefit from a “streamlined permitting process for AI-related developments.” 
  • Rogers also holds “between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust” — a real estate giant that is helping “develop a massive 1.6 million square-foot data center” in Saline worth $16 billion 

The Lever also reports that Rogers has raised “nearly $150,000 in campaign cash from a number of individuals with AI and data center investments.” 

  • “Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, staunch Trump supporters and investors in multiple AI companies, together gave $14,000 to Rogers’ campaign”
  • “Seven executives from private equity firm Blackstone donated $34,500, disclosures show.” 

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