In this essay, Dan Kagan-Kans argues that the political left has largely refused to engage seriously with artificial intelligence, instead settling on a dismissive consensus that treats it as little more than "spicy autocomplete." Drawing on voices from left-wing publications, podcasts, academics, and politicians, he traces how this attitude took hold, examines the understandable reasons for skepticism alongside the costs of letting skepticism harden into denial, and makes the case that by ceding the AI conversation to the right, the left risks being unprepared for, and unable to shape, one of the most consequential technological shifts in history.
00:00 - Introduction
00:16 - Abdication
02:31 - The new consensus
10:55 - The con
13:57 - Reasons to be skeptical
16:52 - Academia
21:45 - Exceptions and the right
25:39 - Costs and missed opportunities
