A Plan to Stop AI from Automating Our Decline | Gina Raimondo | TED

Name: A Plan to Stop AI from Automating Our Decline | Gina Raimondo | TED
Duration: 15 min 51 s
Description: The United States is on track to win the AI race — and hollow itself out in the process, says Gina Raimondo, former Governor of Rhode Island and US Secretary of

TED15:51Added Aug 30, 2026

The United States is on track to win the AI race — and hollow itself out in the process, says Gina Raimondo, former Governor of Rhode Island and US Secretary of Commerce. In this unflinching look at the threat of AI-induced economic disruption and social unrest, she offers a concrete blueprint to prepare workers for what’s coming next. "AI is a 100-year technology and needs a 100-year response," she says. Is America up to the challenge? (Recorded at TED2026 on April 14, 2026)

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

Transcript

00:04What will it take for America to lead the global AI competition?
00:11Now we all know we’ll need plentiful energy, the best chips,
00:14the most innovative AI companies, the best models.
00:18But I argue that's not nearly enough.
00:22Because if we're the best in the world at those things,
00:25but we've displaced millions of American workers,
00:28then we're going to lose the global AI race.
00:32In fact,
00:34we will have automated our decline.
00:37Because recessions, social unrest, political upheaval,
00:41those will weaken our country,
00:43our politics and our economy.
00:46And ultimately, I believe, I know,
00:48they will lead to excessive, burdensome regulation of AI
00:54that will slow and stop and hinder AI innovation.
01:00The reality is the United States can't lead the world
01:05in technological innovation
01:08if it's failing its people at home.
01:10We need a technology strategy and a human capital strategy,
01:16because the only way to truly win the long-term AI race
01:21is to lead in the technology
01:23and to have a plan that brings everybody along to an AI economy.
01:29Now I think it’s incredibly exciting
01:32to think about what a well-trained individual can do with AI.
01:37Think about how much more productive and creative we'll all be
01:42and how many new businesses will be created.
01:45And I'm optimistic because history shows
01:48every time we create a new technology,
01:52it does create new jobs, new industries, new products, new services.
01:58Over time, with some time.
02:01And I'm confident that that will happen again,
02:03this time with AI.
02:06With time.
02:08So what I'm worried about is the near-term disruption to workers
02:14as we transition from here to an AI economy.
02:20Because, I know this as a former governor and secretary of commerce,
02:25America's workforce and career transition systems
02:29weren't built for this moment.
02:32Some people estimate tens of millions of American workers
02:35are in AI-vulnerable jobs.
02:37All kinds of jobs,
02:39people of every age, geography, income, level of education.
02:43We are not prepared for this transition.
02:47And Americans know it.
02:50I was at a bar the other night watching NCAA basketball.
02:54Huge University of Michigan fan.
02:57And it's all --
02:59Go Blue!
03:00It's all everybody was talking about.
03:02It's all the chatter.
03:03"What are you going to do when you lose your job to AI?"
03:06"I'm so bummed, I'm paying all this money for tuition for my kids in college.
03:09Are they going to have a job when they're done?"
03:12Americans are anxious for a reason, and we owe them more than empathy.
03:17We owe them a plan, we owe them action.
03:20And so far, I'm not hearing a lot of good solutions.
03:24There’s the slow AI, stop AI, overregulate AI crowd.
03:29It's a bad idea.
03:30It denies Americans the promise of AI, and China will pull ahead.
03:35And then there's the universal basic income crowd.
03:38That's also a bad idea.
03:40Every one of you know, a job is more than a paycheck.
03:45It's dignity, it's purpose, it's pride.
03:47Without purposeful work, a society unravels.
03:51So what are the elements of an effective transition plan?
03:57Unfortunately, as I stand here today, I don't know the exact details,
04:01But here's what I do know.
04:03I know it's rooted in a new grand bargain between government and business.
04:09I know it means tearing down the wall we've had for so long
04:13between school and jobs,
04:16and I know industry,
04:18every company needs to help lead the transition.
04:22And here is what I know more than anything else.
04:26I know if we are determined, we can make it happen.
04:32At a minimum, we need massive changes in both our workforce training system
04:37and our career transition support system.
04:41In an effective workforce training system,
04:44employers define where work is today,
04:47what skills are needed, where it’s going.
04:50And then schools and government training programs prepare people to get there.
04:54That is not what we have today.
04:57Today, in our country,
04:58we spend hundreds of billions of dollars to incentivize enrollment in college --
05:05without regard to whether people get a degree,
05:07the skills they need for a job or a job.
05:11The truth is, and you all know this,
05:13government and schools don't know the skills employers need today
05:18or will need tomorrow.
05:19Industry has the most accurate and dynamic view.
05:24By the way, I’ve seen this be successful as governor and secretary of commerce.
05:30When TSMC decided
05:33to expand manufacturing of chips in America,
05:38they told us what they needed.
05:40They needed skilled electrical engineers and equipment operators.
05:45So we got to work.
05:46We designed with them, with community college,
05:49with certificate initiatives,
05:52accelerated certificate programs and apprenticeships
05:56tailored to the company's needs.
05:59Today, TSMC is thriving in Arizona,
06:02making leading-edge AI chips at scale for the first time in America's history.
06:09(Applause)
06:14Another problem with our current system is it's a one-and-done system.
06:19You graduate high school, you go to college,
06:21you're done with your education.
06:23That isn't going to work in an AI economy.
06:25All of us, all of us,
06:27will have to learn new skills
06:29because our jobs will be constantly changing over the course of a career.
06:33Let's be honest, most people learn
06:39most of the skills that they use in their job every day
06:43on the job.
06:45Yeah?
06:47So why don't we have more effective, affordable,
06:49flexible options at scale
06:51so people can earn while they learn continuously over the course of a career?
06:57A good friend of mine's husband recently lost his job in IT.
07:04Super smart guy in his late 30s.
07:06So he spent a long time trying to figure out a job that excited him,
07:10that he thought was an AI-resilient career path.
07:13He finally found a job in the HVAC industry.
07:17He was psyched for it.
07:19He spent a lot of time looking for a training program in his area.
07:22He found one that he could get into.
07:24It took a year, over a year actually,
07:27cost money,
07:29and he wouldn't be paid for a year.
07:32Who can go a year without a salary?
07:35Now look, I know, I’ve seen it,
07:38there is a lot of really excellent innovation out there
07:43around employer-led worker training,
07:46apprenticeships, co-ops and college.
07:49But here's the reality.
07:51All of those efforts are a tiny portion
07:55of America's post-high school system.
07:59They ought to be the system.
08:02They ought to be the norm and not the exception.
08:04And there should be no stigma for going that path.
08:09OK, now, the reality is it's going to take
08:12more than just new workforce training system
08:15if we're going to get through this economic transition,
08:17because we also have to provide support for people as AI changes their jobs.
08:23And unfortunately, today in the US,
08:26our primary career transition support system is unemployment insurance.
08:31It was created 100 years ago in a different time
08:34where people had a single job in a single industry for decades.
08:38It does nothing to support people getting new training,
08:41starting a new business, entering a new field.
08:44And actually, I know this from being governor,
08:47it doesn't provide nearly enough income support for middle-class wage earners,
08:51let alone high-income earners.
08:54So in addition to unemployment benefits,
08:58why don't we offer temporary wage support
09:01to get workers back into the workforce quickly by topping up their salary,
09:05if they take a pay cut to enter a new field?
09:10By the way, one of the reasons I'm excited about AI
09:12is I think it'll make starting a business easier than ever.
09:15So why don't we look at a program of self-employment assistance
09:21to support workers while they start a new business?
09:25So let's say we do all this.
09:27Let's say we are determined, creative, and we do all this.
09:29What might it look like?
09:32Imagine a 45-year-old woman.
09:34She's been an accountant for 15 years, closing the books.
09:38She's got two kids, a pile of bills and a mortgage.
09:41Pretty typical.
09:43Last week she was told she's losing her job
09:45because it's being automated.
09:47Today, in our system,
09:50if she's lucky,
09:51she'd get a retraining brochure and two weeks' severance.
09:55There's over a million accountants in America.
09:58In a better system,
10:01her company would be incentivized to allow her to start retraining
10:06months before she's laid off.
10:09Maybe she gets a short-term credential to learn a higher-value skill.
10:14It puts her in a position to get redeployed at that company
10:18if the company is committed to redeployment.
10:20And if she needs it,
10:22maybe she could collect temporary wage insurance
10:25to top up her income
10:27to make up the difference between her old job
10:29and her new job salary.
10:32So how are we going to do this?
10:34How do we get there?
10:35Incentives, innovation and urgency.
10:38First, the government needs to fund schools
10:42and training programs on their outcomes.
10:49(Laughter)
10:50How about that?
10:51(Applause)
10:52They shouldn't just get the money because people show up and enroll.
10:56They need to be funded based upon whether people get good skills
11:00and actually get a job.
11:03Incentives need to change for businesses as well.
11:06Right now, the incentives are such
11:10that a company lays a lot of people off today,
11:13and their stock price surges tomorrow.
11:16It is too easy to hit the “easy button” of layoffs.
11:21Companies need different incentives.
11:25Quite frankly, we need a new system
11:27where it's more expensive to abandon workers
11:31than to retrain them.
11:34(Applause)
11:37We all respond to incentives.
11:40How about we pilot tax credits or other economic incentives
11:44that reward companies for worker redeployment,
11:48for entry-level hiring,
11:50for reinvesting AI productivity gains into new jobs?
11:56We have spent decades, if not longer,
11:58perfecting the incentives for investing in machines.
12:02We need to do the same so companies invest in people.
12:06And here's the reality.
12:09It's in all of our interests
12:10to have a smooth transition to an AI economy.
12:14It isn't business versus workers.
12:17Nobody benefits with the recession, excessive AI regulations,
12:20social unrest and political violence and divisiveness.
12:26By the way, it's in everyone's benefit to reach this exciting potential
12:29of AI innovation.
12:33It’s not corporate charity to do this.
12:35Last time I checked, agents didn't walk into the store and buy things.
12:39Humans do that.
12:41And they need money in their pocket to do it.
12:44So it turns out America has seen a similar movie to this before,
12:49when we didn't plan for an economic transition,
12:51and by the way, it didn't end well.
12:53It happened when American companies moved their manufacturing overseas,
12:58mostly to Asia, chasing cheaper labor,
13:01and millions of Americans lost their jobs.
13:04And a lot of communities were crushed.
13:07How do I know this?
13:08Because I lived through it.
13:10In the early '80s,
13:11when the Bulova watch factory closed,
13:14my dad lost the only career he’d ever known
13:18after devoting almost 30 years of his life to the job.
13:21One job, one company, one identity.
13:25Gone.
13:26Here's the thing, he was 56.
13:28He still needed a job.
13:30He still needed to work.
13:31My dad was a smart guy.
13:33He understood the economics of outsourcing to China,
13:39and he knew it would help some American businesses
13:43grow faster and add new jobs.
13:46But he and all of his buddies still needed a bridge
13:50to another chapter of work.
13:52And there wasn't one.
13:54I mean, after a lot of pain and bitterness on his part,
13:57my family got through it.
13:59But the truth of it is,
14:00my country paid a huge price for that poorly planned transition.
14:05In fact, I argue, 30 years later,
14:07we're still paying a price for that poorly planned transition
14:11in the form of increasingly divisive, dysfunctional, violent politics.
14:17Now --
14:18(Applause)
14:22Think about this.
14:25At that time,
14:27it was a few million Americans who lost their jobs.
14:34Some say two million, some say three million.
14:37Let's resolve right here, right now to do it differently this time.
14:42Here's good news.
14:45History also shows
14:48that when the stakes are high enough,
14:50America reinvents.
14:52After World War II,
14:54record public investment and research
14:56seeded new industries.
14:58COVID accelerated growth in clean energy,
15:01in health care.
15:04AI is a 100-year technology and needs a 100-year response
15:08so that all Americans can reap the benefits of an AI economy.
15:14Why am I optimistic?
15:16Because if we're a country
15:18that can design the best chips in the world,
15:22create the best models in the world
15:24and spend trillions of dollars to build out our AI infrastructure,
15:30then we're up to this challenge.
15:32Because here's the reality.
15:34And you know this.
15:36Our future isn't predetermined.
15:40It's ours to create.
15:42It's why you're all here.
15:43So let's get to work.
15:45Thank you.
15:46(Applause)