Overview
Are data centers draining America’s water and driving up electric bills? Will artificial intelligence (AI) wipe out jobs, and should government own a share of the companies that build it? John Stossel and Alex Epstein, who writes about AI and energy, take on the protests against AI, compare today’s job-loss warnings with past predictions about automation, and argue that AI will do the most good if government does not control it. They also warn that if America falls behind, China’s values of censorship and surveillance could be built into the technology instead.

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Lesson Insights

Grade level and subjects
• Recommended for grades 6-12
• Subjects: Government, Science / Technology, Economics
• Works in Classroom, Hybrid, and Homeschool settings

What students will learn
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
• list the three worries about AI that the video addresses and the response the video gives to each;
• compare past predictions that technology would destroy jobs with what actually happened;
• verify a statistic from the video by tracing it to its original source;
• critique the argument that government ownership of AI companies would serve the public good; and
• formulate a position on whether it matters if American or Chinese companies lead the development of AI.

Key concepts and terms covered
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Automation, Censorship, Creative Destruction, Data Center, Electrical Grid, Incentive, Private Grid, Radiologist, Renewable Energy, Surveillance, and Unintended Consequences.

Sample discussion questions
• What three worries about AI does the video set out to answer?
• What did experts predict about radiologists, and what happened?
• How can you tell a real risk from an exaggerated one?
• When government owns part of a company, how might that change the decisions the company makes?
• If a few private companies control the most powerful AI, what can ordinary people do if those companies misuse it?

What’s in the free teacher’s guide
This printable 21-page Teacher’s Guide includes a lesson description, learning objectives, key vocabulary, a fill-in viewing guide with answer key, discussion and analysis questions, classroom activities, and the full video transcript.

Standards alignment

Related resources
• Both Sides: Artificial Intelligence vs. Jobs — Will AI destroy the job market, or will innovation create new and better jobs? Two videos look at what past innovations can tell us about the future of work.
• Both Sides: Artificial Intelligence — Will AI take our jobs or make them easier, and should government regulate it? This pairing presents two perspectives on the future of AI.
• Capitalism Myths – Part 2 — Economist Dan Mitchell explains why automation has created more jobs than it destroyed, from farm work to typewriters. A natural companion to this video’s discussion of AI and jobs.
• Lessons in Lyrics: Creative Destruction — From horse-drawn carriages to delivery drones, this song shows how new opportunities rise when old industries fall. It gives students the name for the process behind the video’s argument about jobs.
• China’s Tech Totalitarianism — A look at how China’s government uses technology for surveillance and social control, useful alongside this video’s warning about the “technologies of control.”