Closing Remarks

Senator, I once watched a pair of horses graze in a Maine meadow and thought no engine could rival their patience. Then the tractor arrived, and the pasture fell silent. So it is with Artificial Intelligence. It cannot whistle or savor a June strawberry, yet it can rummage through patterns, figures, and forecasts with a tirelessness few clerks could muster. Our radiologists lean on the keen eyesight of algorithms to spot tumors, attorneys sift discovery with machine help, and service lines now speak in silicone voices that almost pass for polite conversation.

This is less a tale of outright replacement than one of conspicuous rearrangement. Tasks built of routine will drift toward the machine, the way night work drifts toward the owl. Labor woven of judgment, sympathy, and moral courage remains ours, though even there the owl hoots nearby.

Our duty is not to proclaim eternal human uniqueness—though it exists—but to shape policy so new tools enlarge our dignity rather than diminish it: schooling for adaptability, safety nets for the dislocated, and steady incentives for inventions that keep our men and women working and well.

(Washington, DC — Cannon House Office Building. Joint Economic Committee, Hearing: Safeguard our Workforce)