Verity Harding

The coalition the Democrats didn't ask for Three groups, one bogeyman: how opposition to AI is uniting the Left

Find out how opposing AI became a uniting focus of the Democrat base, and why this causes the party a headache as they head into the midterms.

Someone on LinkedIn compared this piece to Tocqueville, so how can you resist?!

The coalition the Democrats didn't ask for Three groups, one bogeyman: how opposition to AI is uniting the Left

NEW POST:

Three groups within the left in the US are increasingly united against one bogeyman: AI. What does this mean for Democrats in the year of the midterms? It’s a coalition they didn’t ask for, but will have to lead.

India: an AI power on the rise? The AI Summit in New Delhi will show India’s AI ambition, and power

Why are tech leaders flocking to Delhi next week? My latest post explores India’s rise as an AI power broker.

India: an AI power on the rise? The AI Summit in New Delhi will show India’s AI ambition, and power

Why are tech leaders flocking to Delhi next week? My latest post explores India’s rise as an AI power broker.

AI is challenging, but it doesn’t need to be frightening. So why do so many talk about every new aspect of it in such hyperbolic terms? My latest ‘AI Needs You’ post argues for calm.

The Sunday Times today very much proving my point with this headline

Moltbook is not magic Why do we crave hyperbole in AI?

Talking about AI in apocalyptic, frantic terms serves only to distract from real work that needs doing and has been done. Moltbook was the latest in a long line of triggers for a breathless panic that helps no one.

My latest edition of ‘AI Needs You’ on why we crave hyperbole in AI:

Jeffrey Epstein’s Money Mingled With Silicon Valley Start-Ups

New: we dug into Epstein’s dealmaking in Silicon Valley. He used his connections with tech’s elite to get into hot startup deals, some of which paid off handsomely (coinbase) and others that did not (jawbone).

W/ @rmac.bsky.social + matt Goldstein

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...

Moltbook is not magic Why do we crave hyperbole in AI?

Talking about AI in apocalyptic, frantic terms serves only to distract from real work that needs doing and has been done. Moltbook was the latest in a long line of triggers for a breathless panic that helps no one.

My latest edition of ‘AI Needs You’ on why we crave hyperbole in AI:

Moltbook is not magic Why do we crave hyperbole in AI?

Not everything in AI has to be scary.

Moltbook is not magic Why do we crave hyperbole in AI?

Not everything in AI has to be scary.

The AI battle tearing MAGA apart The Trump administration claims to be pro-AI. It’s not as simple as that.

Beneath the calls for all-out American dominance in AI, there is a huge amount of division with the Republican party over what to do. The Silicon Valley critique is that Europe regulates tech too much, but plenty of states and MAGA-supporters want to regulate it too.

The AI battle tearing MAGA apart The Trump administration claims to be pro-AI. It’s not as simple as that.

The consensus seems to say that the Trump administration is joined up in its support for AI and AI companies—but in fact, AI is one of the few issues causing rupture inside the MAGA movement.

Read all about it in the latest edition of AI NEEDS YOU (free to read)

The AI battle tearing MAGA apart The Trump administration claims to be pro-AI. It’s not as simple as that.

The Trump movement is divided over AI, and it highlights something interesting about the future of AI and the future of US politics. My latest post:

The AI battle tearing MAGA apart The Trump administration claims to be pro-AI. It’s not as simple as that.

New AI NEEDS YOU post is up: On how AI has become an unlikely fault-line in the MAGA movement. Come for the 2am Senate drama, stay for the evangelical conservative wing who think AI scientists are 'apostates'.

Plus, Book of the Week!

The AI battle tearing MAGA apart The Trump administration claims to be pro-AI. It’s not as simple as that.

New AI NEEDS YOU post is up: On how AI has become an unlikely fault-line in the MAGA movement. Come for the 2am Senate drama, stay for the evangelical conservative wing who think AI scientists are 'apostates'.

Plus, Book of the Week!

Thank you Sean!

This is good and, more generally, it's always welcome to have someone talking about AI and politics that has actually worked in both AI and politics.

In case you missed my new Substack on AI and politics — first edition on whether comparisons to an ‘arms race’ are appropriate.

With thanks to the substack OG @samfr.bsky.social for this kind recommendation!

What the Space Race can teach us about AI When world leaders talk about AI, they often reach for the scariest metaphor they know: a winner-takes-all "arms race" their country can't afford to lose. AI policy expert Verity Harding says it's tim...

My TED talk on why an ‘arms race’ is the wrong way to think about AI is now available online.

In it I argue:

(1/n)

“The point isn’t the rocket. The point is the moon.”

At a time when the world order is increasingly fractious and adversarial, it was incredibly encouraging to me that this message seemed to resonate with so many people in the room.

(6/6)

4. That AI isn’t the end in itself. We should focus first on the future we’re trying to build and the society we want to live in, and then work how AI can or will help or hinder us from achieving that

3. Rather than comparing AI to the nuclear arms race, the Space Race offers a better historical analogy: showing that self-interest and self-restraint are not incompatible, and collaboration and competition can coexist

2. That the core assumption of the arms race—that a single technological threshold will create a "ruler of the world"—is false, because AI adoption is continuous and non-binary

1. Framing AI as a zero-sum arms race is not only nonsensical on a technical level, but profoundly dangerous geopolitically, encouraging isolationism and recklessness in an effort to win a race with no clear finish line

What the Space Race can teach us about AI When world leaders talk about AI, they often reach for the scariest metaphor they know: a winner-takes-all "arms race" their country can't afford to lose. AI policy expert Verity Harding says it's tim...

My TED talk on why an ‘arms race’ is the wrong way to think about AI is now available online.

In it I argue:

(1/n)

Thank you!

A third way for AI and geopolitics Better leadership on AI is needed – it needn't come only from the United States

My new Substack launched yesterday with this piece on whether there’s a future for AI and geopolitics beyond the US-China binary. It’s something I’ve been thinking and writing about for years, but which is more urgent to consider now than ever. Please check it out and subscribe for future posts👇

Great to have @verityharding.bsky.social on substack - one of the most insightful writers about AI.