Elizabeth Power
977 posts
Elizabeth Power
@ElizabethDPower
AI policy | formerly @BearstarCA
San Francisco, CA Katılım Mart 2013
548 Takip Edilen360 Takipçiler
Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Everyone is getting this wrong:
The politicians in California are pretty terrible, but you can't blame them for the wealth tax... they actually killed the idea 2 years ago.
Our uniquely bad form of direct democracy is the actual culprit.
Democratic Socialist assemblyman Alex Lee introduced the wealth tax in Sacramento (AB 259) 2 years ago. It was not popular, it actually did not even make it to a vote. It was deemed too leftist even for the California legislature.
So why is it back?
California's uniquely bad form of direct democracy lets you bypass the legislature if you get enough signatures... You can put almost anything on the ballot if you get signatures.
That is what the SEIU-UHW, the healthcare workers union did. Union leadership spearheaded this initiative and funded the campaign directly to collect signatures for the wealth tax. They collected signatures by going around asking if people want more money from billionaires to fund hospitals, healthcare, food aid, and schools... naturally people said yes without realizing the consequences.
The only major currently elected official from California that supports it is Ro Khanna. My guess from seeing his support on twitter is that Ro decided to support it without understanding it and then dug his heels in for some stupid reason (he actually acknowledged that it is bad as written).
Tom Steyer and Saikat Chakrabarti who are running for office also support it (we need to do everything we can to oppose them).
I can't believe I'm defending California politicians, but remember - they actually rejected a wealth tax. This is a union-backed ballot initiative trying to go around them.
Kyle Tibbitts@KyleTibbitts
Room temp IQ politicians in California looked at the greatest entrepreneurial ecosystem in the world and said “fuck it, let’s blow it up”.
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Jeffries says AI data centers will be Dem priority dlvr.it/TSFpBg
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Yes, precisely this:
"A moratorium springs from the desire to stop the concentration of wealth, but ironically, it is likely to exacerbate it. It’s a massive strategic blunder for the Left, and we should think through the global justice implications and follow-on effects."
jacobin.com/2026/04/ai-dat…
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
I share this view that AI is and will be the biggest job generator the world has ever seen. The internet expanded economic oppty and opened jobs to many more. AI will be 100x that.
Google enables a Vegas taylor to have a global biz. Ebay and Craigslist did kill the classifieds/newspapers while creating economic oppty/access and cheaper products that continues to lift millions.
Uber and Airbnb unlocked the gig economy for millions too.
GPT and Anthropic enable anyone with an idea to launch a new business in a day. We cant imagine today what this will mean but i’m betting on the creativity of you fellow humans to make the dooms-dayers look like myopic morons!
Anthony Pompliano 🌪@APompliano
I have changed my mind on how AI will impact jobs in America. Previously, I believed AI would replace many entry level roles typically filled by young employees. The technology would then work its way up the organization and eventually reduce the total number of jobs in a company. The data is saying something different, so when I get new information I am willing to change my mind. The number of software engineers being hired has been increasing. The number of open software engineer roles is growing. The number of new college grads who get hired has increased 5.6% over the last 12 months. The unemployment level for people aged 20-24 years old who have a college degree has fallen from nearly 9% to almost 5% as well. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote “AI created 640,000 jobs between 2023 and 2025 in the U.S., according to an analysis by LinkedIn of job posting data, including new white-collar positions such as Head of AI and AI engineer.” And I am starting to see companies throughout our portfolio aggressively hiring to keep up with the demand for their products and services. If AI can make employees more productive, which is widely accepted as fact, then companies are going to want as many productive units of labor as possible. This is a key reason why I am changing my mind. AI appears to be a magical technology that will make companies more productive and more profitable. The net result will be more corporations, more startups, and more jobs. All three are big, positive wins for the American economy.
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Crazy how you can just...ship a model without a giant PR campaign to scare the shit out of everyone first
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
AI is so hot rn — especially among Dems on Capitol Hill who are using it for work and personal tasks.
Schiff used it to make a living trust. Schatz used it to review grants. Kelly has tried it to build his own apps. One Dem even uses it to read his kids bed time stories.
But it’s not just for kids.
82-year-old Angus King used Claude to help him grill a Trump admin official during a hearing this week:
“It’s very useful. I use it all the time”
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
With 2/3s of our power coming from clean energy and one of the world’s largest economies, California proves climate action and economic strength go hand-in-hand.
In 2025, California’s grid ran on 100% clean electricity for an average of 7 hours a day.
Democrats Deliver@DemzDeliver
🚨 California now gets over 2/3rds of its energy from clean sources.
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Elizabeth Power retweetledi
The stats here are kind of remarkable. BART's new fare gates have led to a 1,000-hour decline in clean up time; 41% drop in crime; and $10 million increase in projected revenue. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/…
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
.@sama has faced plenty of justifiable criticism, but violence can never be justifiable. Read his thoughtful blog post at the link below.
I’m working with colleagues now to draft AI regulatory legislation. Time for your (serious, please) responses: how do we ensure that, as Sam writes, “the democratic process remains more powerful than companies?”
blog.samaltman.com/2279512
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Does it also require them to drive a horse-and-buggy to work wtf
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
I wrote about AI populism and Sam Altman's attackers: incidents like these are only warning shots for how nasty AI politics will get.
From now until forever, “caring a lot about AI” will no longer be correlated with “knowing a lot about AI.” Most of AI's opponents view AI not as a specific technology but as an elite political project to be resisted.
From that lens, the assassination attempts on Altman should be seen in a similar vein to the murder of Charlie Kirk and the UHC CEO.
jasmi.news/p/warning-shots
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
i didn’t realize how bad it was until i saw this comment section on instagram
hope hopes hoping@hopes_revenge
seems really bad
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Stanford CS graduates “are struggling to find entry-level jobs,” according to Professor Jan Liphardt.
The cause, however, is not AI. A survey of 1,000 hiring managers found that 59% of companies overemphasize AI’s role in layoffs because “it plays better with stakeholders than citing financial constraints.”
Steep rate hikes and a cushy entry-level hiring spree during COVID are to blame rather than a convenient technological scapegoat.
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Elizabeth Power retweetledi
Elizabeth Power retweetledi
I wrote this early this morning and I wasn't sure if I would actually publish it, but here it is:
blog.samaltman.com/2279512
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