My great-grandfather, Fred Stoelting was a blacksmith from southern Indiana who came of age in the late 19th Century. During his career, the invention of rubber threatened to disrupt the blacksmithing industry. But rather than panic, he pivoted his business from forging wagons and horseshoes from iron to repairing and re-tiring wagons with rubber. 

“The good Lord took [iron] away and put rubber in its place,” he told a local newspaper in 1948.

Soon after, Fred retired from the smithing shop, where his grandson (my father) had played model airplanes on the shop’s dirt floor as a child. My father went on to build a well-paying career of his own in Indiana as an aeronautical engineer. One line of work was gone, but new ones took its place. 

Today, as AI promises to complete the tasks once done by workers, history is repeating itself. In manufacturing-oriented states like Indiana, many hardworking Americans are especially anxious. It is challenging enough for digital workers to adapt. But if AI shuts down a plant, it can be especially difficult to pivot an entire local economy. 

My family history has taught me about the American capacity to adapt. And as the governor of Indiana, I focused on job creation. That’s why I’m confident that American manufacturing will not only survive the AI era, but that AI will actually boost American manufacturing. 

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Indiana ranks at the top in manufacturing jobs and revenue per capita among the 50 states, and as governor, I spent my days pursuing investors who could help ensure that our high rankings continued. Their biggest concerns (and therefore mine) were Indiana’s supply of skilled workers and electrical power, in that order.  

Now, he marriage of AI, robotics, and advanced human-machine interfaces constitutes a new industrial revolution.........

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