This live episode from South by Southwest features Joe Wiesenthal and Tracy Alloway speaking with David Shore, founder of Blue Rose Research and political consultant, and Byrne Hobart, author of The Diff newsletter and general partner at Anomaly Fund.

The conversation explores the intersection of AI advancement, potential mass white-collar job displacement, and the political responses emerging across party lines. Shore argues that AI progress is happening faster than politicians realize, while Hobart provides perspective on how this general-purpose technology mirrors historical transitions like electrification.

The discussion covers polling data showing widespread public concern about AI job displacement, the speed of AI tool adoption across industries, and the radical policy solutions that may become politically viable as economic disruption accelerates.

AI Progress Accelerating Beyond Expert Predictions

David Shore's personal AI spending reached 15% of pre-tax income on Claude code overages in December, illustrating the rapid capability improvements users are experiencing firsthand.

"The scale at which these things are getting better and the speed at which things are getting better is really jarring" - David, noting the disconnect between AI users and non-users.

Anthropic's revenue growth was 2x what AI experts predicted, representing the biggest surprise in commercial adoption rates according to Shore's analysis.

AI tools like LLMs have been adopted faster than radio, electricity, or the internet, threatening to "upend every single job at the same time" unlike previous sector-specific transitions.

Public Awareness and Political Pressure Building

70% of Americans believe large-scale AI job loss is likely within the next five years, creating immediate political pressure regardless of actual timeline.

60% of the public has used AI tools with 13% using them daily, including deployment in rural Montana hospitals according to Shore's conversations.

AI has become a top political concern faster than any of the other 39 issues Shore tracks, rising dramatically even since last year.

"The American people see this and are really quite worried" - David, emphasizing that political action is needed before problems manifest, not after.

Historical Parallels and Economic Transformation

Byrne Hobart draws parallels to electrification, noting that eventually "every company becomes an electricity company" as general-purpose technologies get absorbed into baseline operations.

The spreadsheet analogy: it didn't eliminate investment bankers or accountants but made their jobs more lucrative while raising output expectations and eliminating the ability to "slack off."

AI models have "superhuman" abilities in some domains but "fall flat" in others due to training on text that skews toward uncertain, debatable topics rather than obvious facts.

Shore compares AI's potential impact to COVID: "This was a thing that nobody saw coming and then it happened really fast" with reactive political responses.

Demographic and Political Divides on AI

Young people, men, and educated workers view AI more positively, while older people, women, and working-class voters are more pessimistic about AI's impact.

The Mississippi Delta has the highest rate of AI excitement, while Black and Latino voters are generally more optimistic than white voters about AI.

Working-class skepticism stems from historical experience: "Every economic big economic shift has had winners and losers, and the winners generally have been either the top one or the top ten percent."

Voters show "minus 40" trust in claims that "AI is going to create lots of new jobs," reflecting broader economic pessimism where two-thirds think the economy is rigged.

Radical Policy Solutions Gaining Support

A policy guaranteeing income up to $150,000, job guarantees, and eviction protections tested at +30 overall and +15 among Trump voters in Shore's polling.

Price controls now have 2-to-1 public support, a dramatic shift from five years ago reflecting the "radical time" in American politics.

"The public is much more radical on this issue than people think" - David, noting that AI populism tests better than traditional populist messaging.

Shore argues politicians must choose between "a large scale solution that protects people's incomes" or "this giant negative sum fight playing out in every single sector simultaneously."

Industry Transformation and New Job Categories

Shore's firm has shifted from hiring copy editors to focusing on "person-centric jobs" as AI handles translation and copy editing tasks more effectively than humans.

Hobart predicts growth in healthcare and regulated professions where "human in the loop" requirements create artificial scarcity and higher bargaining power.

New job categories may include "manservant for absent minded professors" - humans providing obvious context to superhuman but contextually limited AI systems.

"One of our economic purposes, as living and breathing human beings, is to be an easy target for a lawsuit" - Hobart on liability as a uniquely human economic function.