(LifeSiteNews) — Prominent Catholic philosopher Edward Feser rebuked President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk Wednesday for their dramatic promises that artificial intelligence (AI) will reach a point at which traditional work becomes unnecessary to enjoy abundance.
On Tuesday, Trump hosted a meeting of tech executives at the White House to discuss the future of AI, after which he announced that his administration would be rebranding AI as “super intelligence” (SI) and had brokered what he described as a “morally binding” agreement for “tremendous self-policing” of the technology, though questions remain as to how rigorous the oversight will really be, as the one-page, non-binding document has few specifics beyond agreeing to future meetings to establish standards, ending with a declaration that “over time” it “may make sense” to “codify these steps into laws or regulations.”
Musk, the brains behind Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X (formerly Twitter), declared after the meeting that “by far the most likely outcome is an age of abundance where we don’t have just universal basic income, we have universal high income” thanks to “robots” and “superintelligence.” He also dismissed fears of AI making certain jobs obsolete as a pattern that always accompanies progress, and will be balanced out by the rise of new jobs.
Feser, a professor of philosophy at Pasadena City College and frequent commentator on moral, religious, and political issues, noted that Musk’s claims echoed logic that Trump’s own fan base vociferously rejects in other contexts.
“Jobs are going to change. Jobs have always changed.” This is, of course, the same thing free traders say about the loss of manufacturing jobs in the Rust Belt, and MAGA scoffs at it as rationalization of corporate greed – except when billionaire Trump has the near-trillionaire… https://t.co/8L4bNpQtnn
— Edward Feser (@FeserEdward) September 30, 2026
“Jobs have always changed,” he said, was the “same thing free traders say about the loss of manufacturing jobs in the Rust Belt, and MAGA scoffs at it as rationalization of corporate greed – except when billionaire Trump has the near-trillionaire Musk say it on behalf of a meeting of corporate CEOs.”
As for Musk’s predicted “age of abundance” and “universal high income,” Feser called it the “sort of thing MAGA would usually scoff at as dangerous communist fantasy – except when Trump has Musk say it in the very same press conference in which Trump bragged about what good buddies he is with Kim Jong Un.”
The AI industry has exploded in recent years with countless applications in business, media, the internet, medicine, entertainment, and more. Advocates tout promised benefits in areas such as improving productivity, simplifying complex tasks, and more rapidly and effectively diagnosing diseases, while others caution that the technology can be exploited for nefarious purposes, such as supplanting individual choice, replacing human workers, effectively erasing personal privacy, and outsourcing discernment of true or false information.
AI is also heavily dependent on the construction of new data centers, which have become a divisive issue in numerous communities across the country over concerns about their placement and potential impact on localities’ utility bills due to their water and energy needs.
The president has adopted an aggressive posture in support of AI, suggesting that politicians and voters on the other side are “killing the golden goose.” As originally introduced last year, his One Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBB) would have included language forbidding states or localities from enforcing “any law or regulation limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems” for 10 years. The final law did not include that provision, but did appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars for various AI projects.
Throughout this year’s midterm congressional races, candidates of both parties have largely ignored Trump’s advice and have prominently featured anti-data center messaging in their ads, in response to polls showing the public firmly against their expansion.
Gallup found in March that 71 percent oppose the construction of data centers in their areas (Republicans were marginally less hostile than Democrats and Independents, but more than 60 percent of all political affiliations were opposed). A June Reuters/Ipsos poll found 64 percent do not think the rapid pace of data center construction is a good thing, 57 percent oppose building data centers in their communities, and 77 percent fear data centers will make their electricity more expensive. Politico found in July that 41 percent would oppose a data center within three miles of their home (up from just 28 percent opposition in January) and 24 percent would support one.