In Case You Missed It
When people talk about AI and democracy, the conversation often starts with what might be lost: jobs disappearing, people feeling less needed, and communities growing weaker. These are real worries, and they deserve our attention.
But as IHS President Emily Chamlee-Wright argues in a new essay for Persuasion, this framing overlooks a fundamental aspect of how technological change actually unfolds.
Chamlee-Wright draws on economic history to challenge the assumption that AI will simply substitute for human effort across the board. By illustrating how the steam engine transformed labor into new human-driven possibilities—including greater independence and democratic participation for women—she shows that technological advances expand opportunities for human agency.
Chamlee-Wright says:
“Even in a world where every task we can name has been taken on by more capable machines, human beings will want and imagine a still better set of circumstances… The moment that we recognize that something could be better, a sort of restlessness sets in, and the mind seeks out new combinations of tools, capabilities, and know-how that might make it so.”
This distinct human impulse to perceive what’s missing and imagine how things might be otherwise is a form of agency that AI cannot replicate or replace. This enduring human drive keeps people at the heart of progress, and forms the essential agency underpinning democratic life. Read the full piece on Persuasion.
