It's time for government to regulate what's happening and to not leave it up to big business to do it themselves.

And so we're going to need accountability and action from lawmakers to regulate an industry that, up until now, has done what it's wanted to.

AI has become one of the touchiest topics this political season.

Cascade PBS recently hosted a live taping of The NPR Politics Podcast in Seattle, where before the show, that attendee you just heard from, brought up AI as one of her biggest concerns.

The podcast hosts talked about how it's become somewhat of a surprise top issue for voters.

It feels to me, linked in some way to the affordability argument.

- Oh, absolutely.

I mean, can you explain that?

Some of the antipathy to data centers is because they cause people's electricity bills to go up.

That's not the case in every state.

Virginia actually drove a very hard bargain with the AI companies, but most states didn't.

So there's the data centers, which are loud and noisy and dirty, and they cause your electricity bills to go up.

Then there's just the AI, the job killing aspect of AI.

Yes, some of the data centers provide some jobs, but people overall, bipartisan majorities think AI is not going to be good for them or their kids.

To me, the AI story that is not being talked about enough is how much it is a money-in-politics story, because all of these companies have so much money, and it is the dark cloud looming over a lot of these candidates.

There's reporting that shows that Democratic strategists are telling battleground Democrats not to talk about AI, because they're worried that the AI money is just going to drop $30 million.

- And they already are.

Next time, we'll hear about how voters are responding to President Trump's immigration policies.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thanks for watching The Newsfeed.