A plan to stop AI from automating our decline | Gina Raimondo

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3:06I'm Madhu Bakanola. This is TED Business, a podcast from TED. Our speaker today is Gina Raimondo, the former governor of Rhode Island and the former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. In her talk, Gina acknowledges the disruption caused by transitioning to an AI-based economy. But she also provides large-scale solutions to ensure people have both the support and skills to make the leap. Then after the talk, we'll think out loud about innovating incentives. But first, a quick break.

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4:49Summer's supposed to be the easy season. So why are so many people quietly Googling a therapist between summer Fridays? Because more daylight doesn't fix the hard stuff. Sometimes it just turns the volume up. Grow does therapy differently. Grow connects you with thousands of high-quality licensed therapists across the U.S., offering both virtual and in-person sessions, nights and weekends. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. The therapist you want takes your insurance on Grow. Grow accepts over 125 insurance plans.

5:26Sessions average$21 with insurance and some pay as little as$0 depending on their plan. Visit growtherapy.com slash ACAST today to get started. That's growtherapy.com slash ACAST. growtherapy.com slash ACAST. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

5:53And now, Gina Raimondo takes the TED stage.

6:00What will it take for America to lead the global AI competition? Now, we all know we'll need plentiful energy, the best chips, the most innovative AI companies, the best models. But I argue that's not nearly enough. Because if we're the best in the world at those things, but we've displaced millions of American workers, then we're going to lose the global AI race. In fact, we will have automated our decline because recession, social unrest, political upheaval, those will weaken our country, our politics and our economy. And ultimately, I believe, I know, they will lead to excessive, burdensome regulation of AI that will slow and stop and hinder AI innovation.

6:55The reality is the United States can't lead the world in technological innovation if it's failing its people at home. We need a technology strategy and a human capital strategy. Because the only way to truly win the long-term AI race is to lead in the technology and to have a plan that brings everybody along to an AI economy. Now, I think it's incredibly exciting to think about what a well-trained individual can do with AI. Think about how much more productive and creative we'll all be and how many new businesses will be created. And I'm optimistic because history shows every time we create a new technology, it does create new jobs, new industries, new products, new services over time, with some time.

7:57And I'm confident that that will happen again this time with AI. with time. So what I'm worried about is the near-term disruption to workers as we transition from here to an AI economy. Because I know this as a former governor and secretary of commerce, America's workforce and career transition systems weren't built for this moment. Some people estimate tens of millions of American workers are in AI vulnerable jobs, all kinds of jobs, people of every age, geography, income, level of education. We are not prepared for this transition, and Americans know it. I was at a bar the other night watching NCAA basketball, huge University of Michigan fan, And it's all, go blue, it's all everybody was talking about.

8:58It's all the chatter. What are you going to do when you lose your job to AI? I'm so bummed I'm paying all this money for tuition for my kids in college. Are they going to have a job when they're done? Americans are anxious for a reason, and we owe them more than empathy. We owe them a plan. We owe them action. And so far, I'm not hearing a lot of good solutions. There's the slow AI, stop AI, over-regulate AI crowd. It's a bad idea. It denies Americans the promise of AI, and China will pull ahead. And then there's the universal basic income crowd. That's also a bad idea. Every one of you know a job's more than a paycheck.

9:41It's dignity, it's purpose, it's pride. Without purposeful work, a society unravels. So what are the elements of an effective transition plan. Unfortunately, as I stand here today, I don't know the exact details. But here's what I do know. I know it's rooted in a new grand bargain between government and business. I know it means tearing down the wall we've had for so long between school and jobs. And I know industry, Every company needs to help lead the transition. And here is what I know more than anything else. I know if we are determined, we can make it happen. At a minimum, we need massive changes in both our workforce training system and our career transition support system.

10:37In an effective workforce training system, employers define where work is today, what skills are needed, where it's going, and then schools and government training programs prepare people to get there. That is not what we have today. Today, in our country, we spend hundreds of billions of dollars to incentivize enrollment in college without regard to whether people get a degree, the skills they need for a job, or a job. The truth is, and you all know this, government and schools don't know the skills employers need today or will need tomorrow. Industry has the most accurate and dynamic view. By the way, I've seen this be successful as governor and secretary of commerce.

11:26When TSMC decided to expand manufacturing of chips in America, they told us what they needed. They needed skilled electrical engineers and equipment operators. So we got to work. We designed with them, with community college, with certificate initiatives, accelerated certificate programs and apprenticeships tailored to the company's needs. Today, TSMC is thriving in Arizona, making leading-edge AI chips at scale for the first time in America's history.

12:10Another problem with our current system is it's a one-and-done system. You graduate high school, you go to college, you're done with your education. That isn't going to work in an AI economy. All of us, all of us will have to learn new skills because our jobs will be constantly changing over the course of a career. Let's be honest. Most people learn most of the skills that they use in their job every day on the job. Yeah? So why don't we have more effective, affordable, flexible options at scale so people can earn while they learn continuously over the course of a career. A good friend of mine's husband recently lost his job in IT.

13:00Super smart guy in his late 30s. So he spent a long time trying to figure out a job that excited him that he thought was an AI resilient career path. He finally found a job in the HVAC industry. He was psyched for it. Spent a lot of time looking for a training program in his area. He found one that he could get into. It took a year, over a year actually, cost money, and he wouldn't be paid for a year. Who could go a year without a salary? Now look, I know, I've seen it, there is a lot of really excellent innovation out there around employer-led worker training, apprenticeships, co-ops in college.

13:46But here's the reality. All of those efforts are a tiny portion of America's post-high school system. They ought to be the system. They ought to be the norm and not the exception. And there should be no stigma for going that path. Okay, now the reality is it's going to take more than just new workforce training system if we're going to get through this economic transition, because we also have to provide support for people as AI changes their jobs. And unfortunately, today in the U.S., our primary career transition support system is unemployment insurance. It was created 100 years ago in a different time where people had a single job in a single industry for decades.

14:34It does nothing to support people getting new training, starting a new business, entering a new field. And actually, I know this from being governor, it doesn't provide nearly enough income support for middle class wage earners, let alone high income earners. So in addition to unemployment benefits, why don't we offer temporary wage support to get workers back into the workforce quickly by topping up their salary if they take a pay cut to enter a new field? By the way, one of the reasons I'm excited about AI is I think it'll make starting a business easier than ever. So why don't we look at a program of self-employment assistance to support workers while they start a new business?

15:21So let's say we do all this. Let's say we are determined, creative, and we do all this. What might it look like? Imagine a 45-year-old woman. She's been an accountant for 15 years closing the books. She's got two kids, a pile of bills, and a mortgage. Pretty typical. Last week, she was told she's losing her job because it's being automated. Today, in our system, if she's lucky, she'll get a retraining brochure and two-week severance. There's over a million accountants in America. In a better system, her company would be incentivized to allow her to start retraining months before she's laid off.

16:05Maybe she gets a short-term credential to learn a higher value skill. It puts her in a position to get redeployed at that company, if the company's committed to redeployment. and if she needs it, maybe she could collect temporary wage insurance to top up her income to make up the difference between her old job and her new job salary. So how are we going to do this? How do we get there? Incentives, innovation, and urgency. First, the government needs to fund schools and training programs on their outcomes.

16:46How about that? They shouldn't just get the money because people show up and enroll. They need to be funded based upon whether people get good skills and actually get a job. Incentives needs to change for businesses as well. Right now, the incentives are such that a company lays a lot of people off today and their stock price surges tomorrow. It is too easy to hit the easy button of layoffs. companies need different incentives. Quite frankly, we need a new system where it's more expensive to abandon workers than to retrain them.

17:33We all respond to incentives. How about we pilot tax credits or other economic incentives that reward companies for worker redeployment, for entry-level hiring, for reinvesting AI productivity gains into new jobs. We have spent decades, if not longer, perfecting the incentives for investing in machines. We need to do the same so companies invest in people. And here's the reality. It's in all of our interest to have a smooth transition to an AI economy. It isn't business versus workers. Nobody benefits with the recession, excessive AI regulation, social unrest, and political violence and divisiveness.

18:22By the way, it's in everyone's benefit to reach this exciting potential of AI innovation. It's not corporate charity to do this. Last time I checked, agents didn't walk into the store and buy things. Humans do that, and they need money in their pocket to do it. So it turns out America has seen a similar movie to this before, when we didn't plan for an economic transition. And by the way, it didn't end well. It happened when American companies moved their manufacturing overseas, mostly to Asia, chasing cheaper labor. And millions of Americans lost their jobs, and a lot of communities were crushed.

19:03How do I know this? Because I lived through it. In the early 80s, when the Bolivar Watch factory closed, my dad lost the only career he'd ever known after devoting almost 30 years of his life to the job. One job, one company, one identity, gone. Here's the thing, he was 56. He still needed a job. He still needed to work. My dad was a smart guy. He understood the economics of outsourcing to China. And he knew it would help some American businesses grow faster and add new jobs. But he and all of his buddies still needed a bridge to another chapter of work, and there wasn't one. I mean, after a lot of pain and bitterness on his part, my family got through it.

19:55But the truth of it is, my country paid a huge price for that. Poorly planned transition. In fact, I argue 30 years later, we're still paying a price for that poorly planned transition in the form of increasingly divisive, dysfunctional, violent politics. Now, think about this. At that time, it was a few million Americans who lost their jobs. Some say two million, some say three million. Let's resolve right here, right now, to do it differently this time. Here's good news. History also shows that when the stakes are high enough, America reinvents. After World War II, record public investment and research seeded new industries.

20:54COVID accelerated growth in clean energy, in healthcare. here. AI is a hundred-year technology and needs a hundred-year response so that all Americans can reap the benefits of an AI economy. Why am I optimistic? Because if we're a country that can design the best chips in the world, create the best models in the world, and spend trillions of dollars to build out our AI infrastructure, then we're up to this challenge. Because here's the reality. And you know this, our future isn't predetermined. It's ours to create. It's why you're all here. So let's get to work.

21:47Hi, this is Becca Moore from For the Girls. And this podcast is sponsored by Aerie, where you can find the right bra in 59 sizes, soft fabrics, and good fits. If your bra strap is digging into your shoulder right now, it's the wrong bra. We get so used to being in pain as girls that we forget it doesn't have to be this way. Your clothes should not hurt. I got to the point where I stopped wearing bras altogether, and now my life has changed, you guys. The only bras I have in my dresser right now are Aerie, and I'm not kidding. Aerie's on a mission to make you feel good, and that starts with your bra.

22:14Your bra should hold you in, not back. Visit Aerie.com to find the right bra for you. Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hung on her every word. My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana. It was a lovely SUV, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it. Tonight, we feast. An offer you can feast on. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees, may apply. Every episode of Planet Money begins with a question. Can we help people rise out of poverty by improving the neighborhood where they live? What would you build on a piece of land when all the normal rules go out the window?

23:00What do robot chefs mean for the restaurant industry? Planet Money helps you find answers by going to places, watching people, and sometimes robots, at work, and asking questions. Listen to Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

23:19That was Gina Raimondo at TED 2026. We've seen as a country what happens when so many jobs are outsourced without any lifelines or guidance for those who've suddenly lost their job. Even now, each time when one of those newspaper articles comes out about a major corporation doing layoffs, I usually know one or two people who have been affected, be it friends, family, students of mine. The impact is widespread. This kind of sudden job loss hits especially hard when those laid off are older or have been in the same roles for many decades. As an educator, I appreciated her emphasis on lifelong learning and her vision to build that into our workplaces and our economy.

24:08I love the idea of temporary wage support for people learning new skills or getting retrained. People shouldn't be punished for taking time to find new ways to work, and few of us can take a large chunk of time off to do so without a salary anyway. Companies should be incentivized, too, to share these skills with their employees, not just benefit financially from laying them off. I saw firsthand how amazing it can be when a college education is mixed with true professional training and mentorship. A few of my classmates from business school had previously attended Northeastern University's undergraduate co-op program, where students alternated between taking college classes and getting work experience in the field they were interested in.

24:58This was a core part of the curriculum, to get exposure to both real life and the classroom. And it wasn't just them who benefited from that kind of hands-on training. being in their presence was like a masterclass in professionalism. These kinds of programs already exist, but not at the scale needed to keep up with AI. So how can we create the incentives necessary to make these opportunities available to those who need it most before it's too late? That's it for today. TED Business is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced by Hannah Kingsley Ma, edited by Alejandra Salazar, and fact-checked by Julia Dickerson.

25:43Special thanks to Maria Ladias, Farrah DeGrunde, Daniela Ballarezzo, Tamsika Sangmanivang, and Roxanne Heilash. I'm Madupa Akinola. Thanks for listening.

25:59Hi, this is Becca Moore from For the Girls, and this podcast is sponsored by Aerie, where you can find the right bra in 59 sizes, soft fabrics, and good fits. If your bra strap is digging into your shoulder right now, it's the wrong bra. We get so used to being in pain as girls that we forget it doesn't have to be this way. Your clothes should not hurt. I got to the point where I stopped wearing bras altogether. And now my life has changed, you guys. The only bras I have in my dresser right now are Aerie, and I'm not kidding. Aerie's on a mission to make you feel good, and that starts with your bra.

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27:01Every episode of Planet Money begins with a question. Can we help people rise out of poverty by improving the neighborhood where they live? What would you build on a piece of land when all the normal rules go out the window? What do robot chefs mean for the restaurant industry? Planet Money helps you find answers by going to places, watching people, and sometimes robots, at work, and asking questions. Listen to Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.