In Lehigh University talk, Sen. Dave McCormick argues AI revolution could revitalize Pennsylvania

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — In a "fireside chat" at Lehigh University, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick argued AI could be the economic engine that revitalizes Pennsylvania.

McCormick at the Thursday session laid out his vision for a light regulatory touch for a technology he said could boost wages, eliminate jobs, create a generation of economic opportunity, strain energy infrastructure and help decide a do-or-die contest with China.

At times, McCormick, a Republican, broke from the Trump administration in backing basic research funding and allowing more highly skilled immigrants into the United States.

In a back-and-forth with Lehigh President Joseph Helble, McCormick agreed that universities have something to contribute to AI, but criticized them as out-of-touch institutions in need of reform.

McCormick, who said he is a regular AI user who turns to chatbots five or six times a day, said he believes the technology could remake the global economy and transform American society.

“It’s the most important thing that’s going to happen in the lifetimes of everybody in this room," McCormick said. "That’s how big it is.

“I think if you look at the industrial revolution and all the good it brought, but all the disruption it brought, I think we're facing the next industrial revolution, but on steroids.”

Pennsylvania could be AI center

There can be no AI revolution without an energy revolution, McCormick said, as he argued Pennsylvania is uniquely well positioned to house the massive data centers that train and run cutting-edge AI models.

“If a Martian landed in America and could pick any state in the country to be the AI energy Mecca, I think it would be Pennsylvania,” McCormick said.

He pointed to the state’s substantial natural gas reserves, nine gigawatts of nuclear power generation, skilled workforce, prestigious universities and record as the second-greatest energy producer in the United States.

If Pennsylvania can secure a share of the nascent AI infrastructure industry, McCormick said, it could drive economic growth in the commonwealth for a generation.

“I think it's going to bring prosperity and opportunity to the most Pennsylvanians," he said.

"I think this is going to take people that are making $52,000 a year and create $100,000-a-year jobs. It's an economic growth engine.”

To be sure, McCormick said he worries about disruptions, too, from AI — ranging from higher energy prices to the social impacts of AI companions to significant job losses, particularly among white-collar workers.

But the benefits, he said, could well outweigh the costs, especially for Pennsylvania.

“If you agree Pennsylvania is in decline — economically, job creation, everything else — and we need to change that trajectory, if not this, with all the ups and downs, then what?” McCormick said.

Relaxing regulations

The senator proposed a light-touch regulatory framework that weighs the benefits of tighter rules with the risk of stifling innovation.

McCormick emphasized the “net benefit” he expects AI will bring, despite its disruptions.

“I don't think there is an anti-regulatory sentiment in the Congress or in the administration," McCormick said. "I do think there is a caution about over-regulating.

“If the government starts to regulate state by state and everything else, we're going to kill this unbelievable innovation that's happening.”

For example, McCormick called for privacy regulation that balances Americans’ “appropriate desire” for privacy with companies’ and researchers’ need to collect as much data as possible to build advanced AI.

He also suggested relaxing regulations on nuclear power, making it easier for generators to connect to the grid.

McCormick’s optimistic assessment of the likely impact of AI already sets a high bar for government intervention.

But for McCormick, AI supremacy is about more than Pennsylvania's economic prosperity; it’s about the future of America as we know it.

Cultivating and attracting talent

In 2023, McCormick joined the small army of foreign policy and national security cognoscenti writing about how strategic competition with China defines the next era of U.S. foreign policy and strategy.

In his book “Superpower in Peril,” as he recounted Thursday, he casts the competition as an “existential battle” the United States must win.

Technology in general, and AI specifically, will be key to winning the battle, he said, further elevating the technology’s strategic importance.

“If you believe we're in this existential battle, and you believe that China is, on many dimensions, completely unregulated in terms of the considerations and concerns, you're weighing those two things: the very legitimate need to begin to flesh out that framework, and also the recognition that you want to let the industry develop,” McCormick said.

Winning the AI race and the competition with China, McCormick said, will depend on cultivating and attracting talent.

He offered two prescriptions to develop human capital necessary to keep an edge in technology, both at odds with recent Trump Administration actions.

They are to boost basic research funding and encourage highly skilled immigrants to move to the United States.

Where the administration has slashed funding for the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health by more than half, McCormick said funding for basic research should be increased.

'Staked out my ground'

Though McCormick called generally for allowing more highly skilled immigrants into the United States, despite new Trump administration restrictions on student and H1-B visas, he did not offer a specific policy proposal.

“I've sort of staked out my ground at a high level, and now I'm trying to figure out how to participate in this in a way that's meaningful and makes a difference,” he said.

Ultimately, the answer may be “comprehensive immigration reform,” he said — a congressional white whale without a clear path forward in a closely divided body that recently chalked up the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

While interviewing McCormick, Lehigh President Joseph Helble at times went to bat for the idea that universities have something to offer in developing American talent in a political environment where universities often are playing defense with federal officials.

McCormick agreed generally that universities have a major role to play in building American know-how, but argued the institutions need to be reformed.

He argued that universities generally — present company excepted, of course — have lost credibility because of “political” research projects.

He said they've also failed to show they are spending their endowments “in a way that is benefitting all Americans,” and fallen short of their responsibilities to create an environment “where people can come forward and be presented with conflicting ideas.”