Silicon Valley’s latest confab of techno-elites played out over two days on September 8 and 9 at Google’s campus and at Stanford, billed as “The Next Revolution of AI.” Planners called it a forward-looking summit about how artificial intelligence will reshape business, science, and society, and the event drew scores of industry figures and academics to trade ideas and boost their startups.
Names familiar to anyone who pays attention to big tech showed up to nod and take notes — Google researchers, venture capital titans, startup founders, and the usual Silicon Valley chorus promising a future only they can architect. The presence of high-profile speakers and panels underscored the point: these are not idle hobbyists but powerful institutions setting agendas that will touch every American worker and family.
That concentration of influence should make every patriot uneasy. When the people who build the tools also get to decide how they’re used, whose jobs are protected, and which values are embedded into the systems, we face a real risk of one-sided outcomes. Conservatives believe in innovation, but we also believe in accountability, federalism, and protecting everyday Americans from decisions made behind closed doors in private campuses.
Organizers spent a lot of time assuring attendees that AI is ultimately a productivity boon if companies get their culture right, a message that eases investors and comforts engineers worried about disruption. But the real picture is messier: enterprise adoption raises questions about who benefits and who gets left behind, and those conversations rarely center the factory worker, teacher, or small business owner whose livelihoods could be upended.
There’s also a strategic layer most of these panels didn’t have to face: chips, infrastructure, and supply chains matter as much as clever code. The global race for AI hardware and data centers has profound national security and industrial consequences, and American leadership is not guaranteed if policy makers don’t act. What we saw at the summit — evangelism for tools without matching conversations about industrial strength and resiliency — is a dangerous imbalance.
Conservatives should demand a practical plan: invest in domestic manufacturing, support apprenticeships and community colleges so displaced workers can pivot, and use targeted policy like the CHIPS-era commitments to build American capacity. The White House and Congress must stop treating tech like an untouchable cathedral and start enforcing rules that protect privacy, competition, and national security while fostering real-world opportunity.
Silicon Valley wants credit for imagination and disruption, and some of that promise is real. But imagination without patriotism is just permission to remake society on Silicon Valley’s terms. Hardworking Americans deserve innovation that uplifts communities, not another round of boardroom experiments that enrich a few and leave the rest to clean up the consequences. We should welcome the future — on our terms, and with our values at the center.
