San Francisco Congressional Hopefuls Debate AI, Billionaires and, of Course, Housing
As warnings of an artificial intelligence-driven doomsday loom, candidates looking to represent the home of the AI boom in Congress are pitching San Francisco voters on their plan to prevent disaster.
Ideas like data center moratoriums and AI kill-switches have shifted from niche topics to key questions for voters, a fact made clear at a congressional debate on Thursday night moderated by KQED’s Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer, along with Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Nancy Pelosi is retiring after representing the city in Congress for nearly 40 years, and the hotly contested race has come down to two Democrats: state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan.
While both support regulating AI in some fashion, Chan and Wiener had diverging approaches when it came to the best way to move forward as the technology advances quickly.
“AI is arguably the most powerful technology in the history of the world … and self-regulation does not work,” Wiener said, touting his record of authoring the country’s first AI safety bill for the state of California.
Wiener’s first attempt at an AI safety bill included an AI “kill-switch” and other safeguards; however, that bill was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Wiener has said that it should be up to individual communities whether or not to ban data centers. Chan, meanwhile, argued for a moratorium on data centers to “have a moment to regulate artificial intelligence.”
She called out her opponent for counting several major tech leaders among his supporters. “Can we trust politicians who are bankrolled by the AI industry? The answer is no, we cannot. We have to make sure that workers and unions are actually at the table to regulate this AI technology,” Chan said.
Wiener fired back that plenty of tech industry leaders tried to stop his AI bill and he pushed it through nonetheless.
“I do battle with some of the biggest and wealthiest corporations in the history of the planet,” he said.
Another tense moment around AI came when the candidates were asked about a recent sexual assault allegation in local San Francisco politics. Prominent local business owner Manny Yekutiel dropped his bid to become the next District 8 supervisor just hours before the debate after being accused by multiple people of sexual assault.
Both Chan and Wiener urged Yekutiel to exit the race and said more work needs to be done to listen to and support survivors of assault and harassment.
Chan pointed out that she herself had to fight against racism and sexism in the political arena recently when Wiener’s team released an AI chatbot mimicking Chan, “mocking me, putting words in my mouth and impersonating me,” she said.
Wiener attempted to diffuse the situation, turning to Chan and apologizing directly to her about the AI chatbot, which his team took down following public criticism elevated by Pelosi, who has endorsed Chan.
“It was a terrible mistake, which is why we took it down,” Wiener said. “I take full responsibility for that.”
Chan honed in on her background during the debate, sharing how she was born in Hong Kong before moving to Taiwan and later immigrating to San Francisco at age 13, growing up in Chinatown before building a career in public service.
She also underscored that she is a working mom and has garnered wide support from unions.
Wiener, who is openly gay and previously served as a San Francisco supervisor, has backing from the state and local Democratic Party, as well as some well-heeled tech leaders.
He’s so far outraised his opponent, but Chan has built up her war chest with the help of Pelosi’s fundraising machine and support from Saikait Chakrabarti, a wealthy former tech engineer whom she defeated in the June primary.
Both candidates were given the opportunity to ask each other a question at Thursday’s debate, with Wiener honing in on Chan’s reputation for blocking housing, like a proposed 495-unit building at 469 Stevenson St., and that she voted against Mayor Daniel Lurie’s rezoning plan at a time when San Francisco is facing a housing crisis.
Chan said those decisions were made based on listening to constituents in the surrounding areas, and that in Congress she would push for more public housing and assistance for renters.
“We can build homes because we need to build homes, but we also need to protect our tenants and small businesses,” she said. “It’s about serving the community and … sometimes that’s not a winner-takes-all approach.”
Wiener’s cultivated a reputation in Sacramento for passing legislation to spur more housing development. But Chan took swings at his support from tech- and real estate-aligned groups, implying that she is the candidate who will stand up to billionaires.
Wiener recently opposed two wealth taxes, Proposition D in San Francisco, which he said would disincentivize business at a time when the city’s economy is still recovering, and Proposition 40 in California, saying that the one-time tax on the November ballot doesn’t offer a sustainable solution to funding healthcare.
Instead, Wiener said he supports Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s ultramillionaire tax. “I do work for the people, and that’s why I’m endorsed by the Sierra Club and Dolores Huerta,” Wiener said. “I support reversing the tax cuts by (Donald) Trump and (George) Bush.”
On foreign policy, both candidates said they would support sending defensive arms to Ukraine as well as Taiwan, if China were to invade the island. They also both stressed that diplomacy and humanitarian aid should be the priority.
“I don’t want U.S. troops to be in a war with China,” Wiener said.
On China, Wiener also stressed that it’s in both the U.S. and China’s best interest to create guardrails around AI technology.
“We do not need some mega arms race where we’re like, who’s going to be the first to potentially melt down the world,” Wiener said. He slammed Trump for eroding the relationship between the U.S. and longtime allies and stressed that in the age of AI, members of Congress need to work together to pass regulations.
“We need leadership in this country that will actually work with other countries,” he said.
Chan said the U.S. should not frame AI regulation around a race with China over who can develop the technology faster but around protecting humanity. While Wiener intimated that she had never worked on AI regulation, she fired back that she’s worked on local laws to stop landlords from using AI to increase rents.
“America can be a leader of innovation without sacrificing safety and without sacrificing our workforce,” Chan said. “We need to demand human oversight, not just when something catastrophic happens.”