Opinion

America's AI boom is a jobs opportunity, not an excuse for universal basic income

Data centers and power plants are putting union electricians and pipefitters to work at six-figure wages without student debt

By Lori Chavez-DeRemer Fox News

Published August 12, 2026 5:00am EDT

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Artificial intelligence agents could go rogue and hack companies, warns former Pentagon official

Former Pentagon A.I. Policy Director Mark Beall warns about the threat of rogue artificial intelligence agents escaping containment and hacking corporate systems. He reacts to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's comments on technological singularity.

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The same voices warning that artificial intelligence will wipe out American jobs have a ready answer: stop working and take a government check. Some call it Universal Basic Income, others call it compassion. But I believe it is a calculated insult to the dignity of work and an admission that the people who actually build, move and power this country have no productive role left to play.

My father was a Teamster, and that fact shaped everything that came after it. My time in Congress was spent building genuine relationships with labor organizations that most Republicans had written off as unreachable. The Teamsters, Ironworkers and numerous other unions supported my campaigns not because I told them what........

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