Just last week we wrote that Ross Douthat, after over 15 years as the best columnist in America, was quickly rising to becoming one of the best podcasters in America. He has added yet another feather to that cap by landing an exclusive interview with Vice President JD Vance in Rome after the Inaugural Mass of Pope Leo XIV.

The hour-long interview is deep and substantive and covers topics such as Vance's Catholic faith and how he relates it to his duties as a political leader, immigration and in particular the lower-than-expected pace of deportations, trade, DOGE, and more.

But for now the most interesting, to us, part of the interview was their discussion of AI.

Vance is the most interesting person in Washington to listen to on AI for several important reasons. The first is that he currently has significant influence on AI policy and, more importantly, of course, that there's a non-negligible chance he could be President of the United States at the time when AI is having its most transformative effects on the economy, society, and geopolitcs. The second is that he is a very thoughtful and philosophical person, very apt to think about these kinds of broad issues, and has a background in the technology industry.

We really liked the way he framed the issue: he described himself as not worried about the economic impacts of AI but worried about almost "everything else."

On the economics, Vance reprised the famous example of bank tellers and the ATM. The ATM was widely predicted to make bank tellers obsolete, but it turns out that there are more bank tellers active today because ATMs made them more productive and now bank tellers are not only around, they make good wages.

For example, interestingly, Vance predicted that truck drivers' jobs wouldn't be eliminated, but instead "I think what might actually happen is that truck drivers are able to work more efficient hours, they're able to get a little bit more sleep, but they're doing much more the last mile of delivery rather than staring at a highway for thirteen hours a day; so they're both safer and they're able to get higher wages."

The two aspects that Vance mentioned as his being not optimistic about are, first, the impact of AI on relationships and social atomization, and second, national security.

On social atomization: "If you look at basic dating behavior among young people […] our young men and women just aren’t dating, and if they’re not dating, they’re not getting married, they’re not starting families. There’s a level of isolation, I think, mediated through technology, that technology can be a bit of a salve. It can be a bit of a Band-Aid. Maybe it makes you feel less lonely, even when you are lonely. But this is where I think A.I. could be profoundly dark and negative. […] Does it mean that there are millions of American teenagers talking to chatbots who don’t have their best interests at heart? Or even if they do have their best interests at heart, they start to develop a relationship, they start to expect a chatbot that’s trying to give a dopamine rush, and, you know, compared to a chatbot, a normal human interaction is not going to be as satisfying, because human beings have wants and needs."

On national security: "We could wake up very soon in a world where there is no cybersecurity. Where the idea of your bank account being safe and secure is just a relic of the past. Where there’s weird shit happening in space mediated through A.I. that makes our communications infrastructure either actively hostile or at least largely inept and inert. So, yeah, I’m worried about this stuff."

Anyway, the whole interview is fascinating and well worth your time.

Policy News You Need To Know

#BigBeautifulBill — Good piece in the Daily Signal on the "fake spending cut gimmicks" in the Big Beautiful Bill. They are largely spending cuts that are pushed in the future and clearly not meant to be implemented in real life, but only to game the scoring process. When it comes to things like IRA tax credits, this seems particularly egregious.

#BigBeautifulBill — But, gotta hear both sides. Here's Rep. Jim Jordan on the "20 Reasons Why Congress Must Unite Behind the One, Big, Beautiful Bill."

#AI — Speaking of AI, here's AEI's Jim Pethokoukis at Law & Liberty making the "pragmatist optimist" case for AI: in other words, he doesn't believe AI can create a "post-governance, post-work, or post-scarcity world" but he still believes it will be a transformational technology. Interesting framing.

#DEI — Very interesting: American Moment, along with America First Legal, well-known DC law firm Boyden Gray, and a group called Feds For Freedom, are banding together in a lawsuit to end race-based hiring in the Federal government. The "inside-outside" strategy is also interesting.

#Trade — The US Chamber of Commerce has put together a briefing on the costs to small businesses of the new tariffs.

#KOSA #BigTech — Senators Hawley and Durbin are reintroducing the STOP CSAM Act, which would "allow victims to bring federal civil lawsuits against companies that intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly promote, store, or make child sex abuse material available," per Axios. It would also create a new criminal provision prohibiting this conduct. This comes just one day after the signing of the First Lady-sponsored "Take It Down Act."

#Life — A coalition of pro-life leaders sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee urging Republican lawmakers to advance a bill that would repeal the FACE Act, a law weaponized by the Biden administration to target pro-life activists. The Committee is set to debate the bill today. More.

#LGBT — The trans insanity is far from over. As reporting from Live Action shows, Planned Parenthood is still fast-tracking teenagers—children—into damaging hormonal treatments, "often without mental health screenings or real parental involvement."

#LGBT — Speaking of, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has reintroduced her Protect Children's Innocence Act, which "criminalizes genital mutilation, chemical castration, and all sex-change procedures performed on children."

#Education — Interesting trend at the state level: new laws in Georgia, Florida, and Missouri will protect "children’s freedom to engage in healthy, independent activities, such as walking to and from school or a store on their own." As Reason Foundation's Zachary Christensen writes, these "laws ensure that parents can confidently grant reasonable levels of independence to their kids without fearing government intervention." Hear hear.

#GreenNewScam — Faced with lawsuits, and also reality, California is walking back its electric truck mandate.