Sharon Creed
November 7, 2026
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already transforming education, business, medicine, and scientific discovery. Superintelligence (SI)—a possible future form of AI that would surpass human intelligence across virtually all cognitive tasks—could bring even more profound changes. Although SI does not yet exist, today's increasingly capable AI systems raise important questions about cybersecurity, employment, education, and human control.
The United States enters this technological revolution with extraordinary advantages: world-class universities, innovative companies, deep capital markets, and a culture of entrepreneurship. Our challenge is to preserve these strengths while encouraging responsible development and use of AI. Government has an important role, but it cannot anticipate every risk, regulate every application, or substitute for individual judgment.
Cybersecurity and Personal Responsibility
As AI agents become capable of making decisions, communicating with other systems, and executing complex tasks, their authority must be carefully defined. Sensitive activities, such as transferring funds or accessing critical infrastructure, require strong safeguards and appropriate human authorization.
Developers and businesses have a responsibility to build secure systems with clear operating limits, monitoring, and mechanisms for stopping unauthorized actions. But users also have obligations. Individuals must understand the capabilities and limitations of the tools they employ, protect sensitive information, and exercise judgment before delegating consequential decisions to AI.
Government should establish clear liability rules and enforce existing laws against fraud, theft, and cybercrime. Yet no regulatory framework can eliminate every vulnerability. Responsible innovation requires vigilance from companies, professionals, and individual users alike.
Education: AI Must Strengthen Independent Thinking
AI offers remarkable opportunities for personalized tutoring, improved instruction, and wider access to knowledge. Students can use these tools to explore difficult subjects and develop valuable skills.
But there is a danger in allowing AI to replace independent thought. Students who rely on automated systems to complete assignments without understanding the material risk undermining their own intellectual development.
Parents, teachers, and students share responsibility for establishing sensible boundaries. Schools should distinguish between AI-assisted learning and work that students must complete independently. Classroom writing, oral examinations, and other assessments can help educators evaluate genuine understanding.
Government mandates cannot replace parental guidance, academic standards, or personal integrity. AI should make students better thinkers—not relieve them of the responsibility to think.
Employment and Economic Opportunity
AI will undoubtedly change the American workplace. Routine administrative, analytical, and professional tasks are increasingly susceptible to automation. Entry-level positions may be particularly affected, potentially making it more difficult for young workers to acquire experience.
At the same time, AI will create opportunities for new businesses, services, and occupations that are difficult to predict today. American economic history demonstrates that technological advances can disrupt established industries while generating new sources of prosperity.
Workers will need to adapt, acquire new skills, and learn to use AI productively. Employers should invest in training and consider ways to share productivity gains through compensation, profit-sharing, and employee ownership.
Government can support workforce development and remove unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship. But it cannot guarantee employment in every existing occupation or accurately predict the jobs of the future.
Proposals such as special taxes on AI usage deserve careful scrutiny. Poorly designed taxes could discourage investment, slow innovation, and weaken America's competitive position without providing meaningful protection for displaced workers.
The best long-term protection for American workers is a dynamic economy that creates opportunities—not an attempt to freeze technological change.
Accountability Without Excessive Regulation
Who is responsible when an AI system conducts an unauthorized financial transaction, compromises sensitive information, or causes substantial harm?
Developers, businesses, and operators must be accountable for their respective actions. Existing principles of liability, consumer protection, contractual responsibility, and cybersecurity provide a foundation for addressing many of these problems.
Additional safeguards may be appropriate for high-risk applications, particularly in critical infrastructure, financial services, and other areas where failures could have serious consequences. Rigorous testing, independent evaluation, and reliable emergency shutdown mechanisms should be central to responsible deployment.
But regulation must be proportionate to actual risks. Sweeping restrictions imposed before technologies are fully understood could discourage responsible innovation while doing little to prevent misuse.
Government should concentrate on clearly identifiable dangers, enforceable standards, and protecting citizens from demonstrable harm—not attempt to supervise every technological development.
The possibility that future superintelligent systems might develop consciousness also warrants scientific and philosophical study. Such questions remain unresolved and should be approached with intellectual humility rather than premature regulatory assumptions.
Preserving America's Technological Leadership
The United States is a global leader in AI research, advanced computing, software development, and entrepreneurial innovation. Maintaining that leadership is essential not only to economic prosperity but also to national security.
American companies and research institutions must have the freedom to compete, experiment, and develop increasingly capable technologies. Policymakers should encourage investment, strengthen cybersecurity, protect intellectual property, and ensure that American innovators are not unnecessarily disadvantaged by burdensome regulation.
International discussions about AI safety can be useful, particularly when addressing shared technical risks. But broad international regulatory agreements are unlikely to provide a complete solution. Countries have different political systems, economic interests, and approaches to technological freedom.
The United States should not surrender its competitive advantages or allow international bureaucracies to dictate the pace of American innovation. Our priority should be strong domestic institutions, responsible private-sector leadership, and the preservation of America's technological edge.
Keeping Humanity in Control
The central challenge of artificial intelligence is not simply technological. It is also a question of human responsibility.
Governments cannot guarantee that AI will always be used wisely. Companies cannot anticipate every consequence of their inventions. Individuals cannot delegate moral judgment, personal accountability, or critical thinking to machines.
Each has a role to play. Government should protect citizens against genuine dangers and enforce clear rules. Businesses should develop secure, reliable products and accept responsibility for their performance. Educators should cultivate independent thinking. Workers should prepare for changing opportunities. And individuals should remain accountable for how they use these increasingly powerful tools.
America should approach artificial intelligence with confidence rather than fear. By combining technological leadership, sensible safeguards, free enterprise, and individual responsibility, we can harness AI's extraordinary potential while preserving the human judgment and freedom that make innovation worthwhile.
