I am a concerned Californian living in Santa Barbara who feels, in a lot of ways, cheated by AI.
Like many people, I use it. I see its promise. It can help doctors, teachers, small businesses, local governments, and working families solve problems faster. In a county like ours — where agriculture, hospitality, education, health care, climate resilience, and small businesses all shape daily life — AI will not remain some distant Silicon Valley issue. It will affect farmworkers, hotel workers, students, patients, public agencies, and the local businesses that keep our communities running.
But Californians are also the raw material powering this new economy. Our work, writing, searches, faces, habits, and data are helping build enormous wealth — yet most of us have little to say in how AI is used or who benefits from it.
This is why I support the AI policy of Tom Steyer, who is running for governor of California.
Steyer understands that the people who profit most from AI should not be the only ones writing the rules. His plan calls for workplace guardrails around privacy, health, safety, and fairness; human oversight in critical areas like hospitals; and protections so AI empowers workers instead of replacing them.
Most importantly, Steyer’s proposal recognizes that if AI creates historic wealth, Californians should share in it through a Golden State Sovereign Wealth Fund funded by a small tax on corporate AI use. This is the kind of bold thinking this moment demands.
AI may be the future. But in Santa Barbara, and across California, that future should belong to all of us — not only to a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires.
