America’s AI surge is a jobs engine—not a rationale for universal basic income

In an op-ed, former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer argues that America’s AI boom is catalyzing a large-scale buildout of data centers and power infrastructure that is putting union trades to work at six-figure wages—without college degrees. Citing multibillion-dollar private investments, she highlights the role of electricians, pipefitters and ironworkers in what industry leaders call an unprecedented infrastructure wave. The author presses for expanded registered apprenticeships and faster permitting to meet surging labor and energy needs. She rejects universal basic income as surrender to technological change, contending that work provides dignity and ownership. The piece frames the AI era as a choice between sidelining workers with government checks or mobilizing them to build and benefit from the next generation of U.S. industrial capacity.

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