A political realignment on tech

Illinois governor JB Pritzker sees a generational shift in how government should interact with big business, particularly around AI, data centers and privacy. The relationship feels more fraught than ever.

Government must protect vulnerable people

Pritzker says government must become a fighter for working people who lack protection from technology invading their lives and homes. His job is to stand up for them, not just collaborate with business.

AI could reshape employment dramatically

Pritzker worries AI will cause significant job loss. If four percent unemployment is near full employment, he fears baseline unemployment could rise to seven or ten percent, destabilizing economies and governments.

States compete fiercely for companies

Illinois competes with Texas, Florida, South Carolina and Michigan for jobs and investment. Pritzker wants to offer incentives but protect state revenue, using white-glove service and streamlined permitting instead of massive tax breaks.

Illinois restructured state government

Pritzker created four deputy governors, a general counsel and chief of staff to break down silos between departments. Instead of twenty-six direct reports, he has four or five, each overseeing six or seven departments.

BEACON connects mental health resources

Illinois created BEACON to address a problem where families had seven different ways to access mental health help for children. One door now connects therapists, psychiatrists, Medicaid and other resources across multiple departments.

Government programs go unused

Illinois offers birth equity initiatives to reduce maternal mortality in Black and Brown communities and free diapers for some people. The problem is working people don't know these programs exist or how to access them.

AI could navigate bureaucracy for people

AI tools could help people navigate government bureaucracy and discover available resources. But Pritzker is cautious, creating an AI Cabinet to think through privacy, safety and efficiency together before plunging ahead.

Pritzker's decision-making framework

Pritzker filters decisions by asking which ones only he can solve. He aims to be ninety percent sure he is right but leaves ten percent for being dead wrong. He seeks expert debate before deciding.

“I'm 90 percent sure I'm right, but there's also a 10 percent chance that I'm dead wrong.”

COVID taught him to learn on the job

Pritzker became governor one year before COVID hit.He worked eighteen hours a day with his team doing emergency procurement of ventilators and masks.He called Trump asking for two million N95 masks and four thousand ventilators.

COVID sparked privacy backlash

COVID accelerated conspiracy theories and sparked bipartisan pushback against government surveillance. The idea that government could be too intrusive shifted attitudes about privacy, connecting to opposition to Flock cameras and facial recognition.

Illinois leads on privacy laws

Illinois passed the Biometric Identification Protection Act and updated it in twenty twenty-four to oppose tracking and surveillance more vociferously. Pritzker thinks the state should review privacy laws every year as technology evolves.

Self-policing will not protect privacy

Pritzker rejects the idea that companies should self-police on AI and privacy. Everyone operates in self-interest. Government exists to solve collective action problems that separate actors cannot solve alone.

“That's one of the reasons why you need a government, in my view.”

Illinois passed tough AI safety laws

Illinois passed the AI Safety Measures Act, the toughest in the country, and the Children's Social Media Safety Act. Only New York, California and Illinois have passed AI safety measures. Forty-seven other states have not.

States cannot solve this alone

Pritzker says states are laboratories of policy but cannot solve AI regulation alone. Congress has taken no action. He is proud of Illinois work but worries about disadvantaging the state while other states do nothing.

AI in therapy was banned in Illinois

Illinois passed a law disallowing AI use in therapy because too much information gets collected and the process lacks humanity.Pritzker is not trying to shut down AI broadly but will regulate where it is improper.

Data centers and AI are conflated

Pritzker pulled back on data center tax incentives in July and pushed the legislature to adopt guarantees on reforms for new construction.

Illinois produces excess electricity

Illinois produces more nuclear power than any other state, roughly fifty-three or fifty-four percent of electricity, and is a net electricity exporter.

AI will bring medical breakthroughs

Pritzker's children are twenty-one and twenty-four and will live to one hundred or one hundred ten because AI will solve medical challenges.There is already a cure for sickle cell anemia.