The 4 AI Fights on Your Ballot: Energy, Regulation, Jobs & Deepfakes
RegulatingAI Podcast: Innovate ResponsiblyShow Notes
Maine just banned data center construction statewide. More than 30 states have introduced 300+ data center bills in 2026. Washington and the states are at war over who gets to write the rules on AI. And underneath it all, AI is already shaping what voters read, believe, and decide heading into the midterms.
In Episode 2 of AI on the Ballot, host Bennett Aiorio (founder of the GIE Foundation) and co-host Sanjay dig into the four fights driving AI onto the ballot: energy and data centers, state vs. federal regulation, jobs and worker displacement, and the information environment itself.
Joining the conversation are two guests who cover the whole terrain: Eric Goldman — Associate Dean and Professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, and one of America's leading authorities on Section 230. He makes the case for giving generative AI room to grow, why he's skeptical of state-by-state regulation, and what a "Section 230 for AI" might look like.
Wendell Wallach — bioethicist, UN AI governance advisor, and author of A Dangerous Master, often called the "godfather of AI ethics." He unpacks the real costs of data centers, his skepticism toward the AGI-and-China race narrative, UBI, deepfakes in elections, and where AI's genuine upside lies.
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