Former Senator Gramm discusses the future of AI, among other federal issues, at his talk to WashU community members (Yolanda Zhang | Contributing photographer)

Former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm argued that AI would be a force for economic good and drew parallels to the Industrial Revolution in a lecture at WashU last Thursday.

The event was sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy. Chancellor Andrew D. Martin was among those in attendance. 

Gramm, who is also an economist and former professor at Texas A&M University, centered his talk on his new book “The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism,” co-written with George Mason University professor Donald J. Boudreaux.

Gramm said that the historical consensus around the Industrial Revolution was that it “impoverished workers and enriched industrialists.” However, he refuted this claim as a myth, stating that real gross domestic product per capita, wages, literacy, and other metrics dramatically increased during this era.

“The Industrial Revolution was the most dramatic event that has ever happened in the history of man on this planet, economically,” Gramm said.

Gramm contested the notion that the Industrial Revolution worsened the quality of life in urban areas in Europe and the United States and argued that literary works of the time by authors like Charles Dickens painted a skewed picture of life in industrial cities. 

“In America, we had growth by biblical proportions,” Gramm said. “By every measure of public well-being, the Industrial Revolution in America had no parallel in the history of the world. No people who had ever lived anywhere, anytime that we have any data on had seen such a dramatic improvement.”

Gramm later drew connections between the impact of the Industrial Revolution on society to what we could see today with the emergence of AI.

Gramm said that he personally uses AI every day and acknowledges its current limitations and the fears it provokes. Gramm said many of the same concerns about the potentially negative impact of AI, such as displacing jobs and widening the wealth gap, were also present for technologies invented during the Industrial Revolution. 

“It is so easy to see the negative impact of change,” Gramm said. “Now, I don’t profess to have any ability to see the future and to know how the AI revolution will play out, but I know we have never adopted a technology in the history of mankind that did not make us better off and that ultimately did not create more jobs and more prosperity.”

He anticipated that the federal government was likely to attempt to regulate AI, which he argued would put the U.S. behind other global competitors.

“I’m afraid that [the] government is going to intervene and delay and stunt the use of AI, and that many of the miracles that will ultimately come will come slower than they would,” Gramm said.

Gramm said that previous federal efforts to help cushion job losses, such as unemployment benefits, have historically been unproductive. 

“We need to find a new way of helping people make economic [transitions].…[I]n my 25 years in Washington, one of my great disappointments was we never found a way to help people help themselves,” Gramm said. “Mostly, when we help people, many of them stop trying to help themselves.”

Gramm expressed optimism that, similarly to the Industrial Revolution, AI would be a net benefit and improve Americans’ overall quality of life. 

“I’m confident, based on what I know about economic history, that ultimately AI will be a great boon to mankind, and we will be richer, freer, and happier as a result,” Gramm said.

Leaving the event, many students like senior Lance Berryman were impressed with Gramm’s knowledge of the AI industry and curious about its potential economic benefits.

“I thought it was interesting,” Berryman said. “We just got phones and computers at the end of the technological revolution. So now, I’m just wondering what more ground can be made in other industries.”

During the event, Gramm criticized President Donald Trump for increasing government involvement in the U.S. economy.

“I think one of the bad things that is happening now is that President Trump is setting a precedent for greater and greater government involvement in American business, and that precedent is going to be used to do things that are going to do great harm,” Gramm said.

Gramm has been critical of the Trump administration’s tariff policies, including in op-eds.  

“[Tariffs] hurt the economy. They make us poor, slow growth, raise prices, and politicize the system,” Gramm said in an interview with Student Life. “There is no redeeming value in protective tariffs, except in a very narrowly defined area of national security. And even there, many of the arguments are funny.”

Gramm was also asked about the national debt. He expects there will be a point where the United States is either unable to pay its debt or its willingness to pay is questioned.

“The chicken will come home to roost,” Gramm said. “I never envisioned in the 1980s that we could go as far as we’ve gone with the level of debt.”

Gramm encouraged the audience to educate itself on AI and financial literacy and to embrace the positive impacts of this new technology.  

“AI is coming,” Gramm said. “The question is, are we going to lead it? Are we going to be the earliest beneficiaries?”