The News
The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is divided over whether the AI industry is a destructive capitalist force that could kill everyone, or merely an overhyped capitalist hustle.
The rift within the largest chapter of the left-wing organization centers on whether the New York DSA should acknowledge the possibility that AI could lead to mass automation and to systems that escape human control — the kind of warnings that gained traction after recent AI-powered hacks. Some tech leaders and Democratic politicians — including America’s leading socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders — have warned that without guardrails, there’s a chance AI could lead to human extinction.
At the chapter’s convention on Nov. 14, members are expected to consider a resolution proposed in September by two graduate students and local DSA members: They warn that industry “negligence” creates “the potential for loss of control of AI agents to cause catastrophic harm.”
But the group’s established Tech Action Working Group is not persuaded. Some in the self-described “techno-skeptical” committee that steers the chapter’s technology policy see things differently, arguing that dire warnings of doom are an attempt to inflate company valuations, and AI is already doing enough damage.
Members of the group’s leadership proposed to amend that measure by removing clauses on automation, loss of control, and catastrophic risk: “AI alarmism and AI hype are the same story,” the group posted to Instagram in September.
The resolution also calls for “the democratization and socialization of AI,” but the amendment deletes that phrase.
Know More
The socialist organization is now mired in procedural infighting. Alexei Gannon and Zachary Jones, who wrote the original resolution, accused the TAWG of presenting its leaders’ views as the group’s official position, even though the group never formally voted on where it stands on AI risk. The TAWG, Gannon and Jones wrote in a Substack post, hasn’t held a membership meeting since March.
“To equate worrying about catastrophic risk with buying a Silicon Valley narrative is to lump hundreds of DSA comrades… and 60% of the American public into the same bucket as Sam Altman and Elon Musk,” they wrote.
Gannon and Jones declined to comment; the New York City DSA chapter and the Tech Action Working Group didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The DSA is also grappling with how to use the technology itself: The local chapter’s tech working group voted in January to ban using generative AI text, images, and video for “any DSA purpose.” The national DSA’s tech committee this month adopted a policy that “neither endorses nor prohibits” AI coding tools for its own software.
J.D.’s view
The discourse in the DSA in many ways mirrors the broader debate confronting the American left over AI, as Democrats look to stake out a position on the issue ahead of the 2028 presidential election. How the DSA and other left-wing factions speak to voters about AI risk could shape what regulation looks like if Democrats retake Congress in the midterms, and which candidates win over the party’s AI-skeptic vote.
I got a glimpse of how progressives are positioning on the issue at the People’s AI Assembly on Monday, organized by the AI Now Institute and More Perfect Union. The event centered on the impacts of data centers, surveillance, and the concentration of power in a handful of companies. Sanders-esque warnings about AI threatening humanity weren’t a focal point, suggesting the DSA camp that’s more focused on mitigating present harms is setting the terms of the conversation, at least in New York.
“Even as we reckon with these larger societal questions, there are still rules that we can implement and hold these kinds of companies to account for,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a DSA member, told the crowd.
Room for Disagreement
It was clear at the People’s AI Assembly that broad swaths of the left remain united on a number of AI-related fronts, including data centers, the concentration of corporate power, and the broader need for regulation and oversight.
Brian Romero, a DSA member and incoming state assemblymember who has worked with the chapter’s tech working group in the past, framed the debate as a complex, fast-moving issue that factions across the political spectrum are having.
“It’s not unlike any other policy issue,” he said. “There’s going to be differences of opinion on the left.” As another attendee at the People’s Assembly told me: “It wouldn’t be the DSA if there wasn’t debate.”
Notable
- Sanders is facing pushback from some on the left over his doomerist AI rhetoric, WIRED reported. “Some of us are looking at Bernie and saying, what happened?” one NYC DSA member said.
- The broader DSA has no “consistent line on what elected socialists should advocate for regarding AI,” Zhao Levi, a DSA member, wrote in Cosmonaut in September, proposing a national working group to draft one for the 2027 national convention.