Axios House D.C.: AI is reshaping America's industrial future

WASHINGTON – The next phase of America's economic growth will depend on whether the U.S. can outcompete rivals in AI, energy and advanced manufacturing, policymakers and business leaders said at Axios House D.C.

Why it matters: America is entering a new industrial age as AI and new technologies boost economic growth and revamp how every sector operates.

Axios' Nathan Bomey, Neil Irwin, Colin Demarest, Mike Allen, Courtenay Brown and Ben Geman hosted conversations with NYSE Group president Lynn Martin; Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.); Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour; Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Michael Selig; Zillow Group CEO Jeremy Wacksman; Northrop Grumman chair, CEO and president Kathy Warden; U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer; and Southern Company chair, president and CEO Chris Womack. The July 14 event was sponsored by Accenture and Ford.

Here are the takeaways:

• Meeks is worried the Iran war will become this generation's "forever war," and he criticized President Trump for using "basically real estate negotiators" in diplomatic talks. On Trump's strategy, Meeks said: "I don't think that you're going to be able to bomb yourself out of this."
• Martin said AI's biggest economic opportunities will come from energy and infrastructure, predicting both sectors are positioned for "outsized returns for a longer period of time."
• As the battle to regulate prediction markets intensifies, Selig says the CFTC will defend its authority over prediction markets "all the way up to the Supreme Court" if necessary.
• Mansour said prediction markets are "here to stay" because many people feel traditional financial systems are "rigged against them."
• The world is still figuring out how to regulate tech companies, but Greer said the U.S. won't let Europe become "the arbiter" of regulating American tech companies.
• U.S. energy demand is growing, and Womack said the U.S. needs to commit to building 10 new nuclear plants to meet that demand.
• Wacksman said the homebuying process has become so complicated that half of Americans cry at some point during the process, according to Zillow's 2022 study.

Content from sponsors' segments:

In a sponsored conversation, Ford Motor Company executive chair Bill Ford said most of America's critical minerals come from China. The U.S. has them – it just doesn't have the proper regulation to develop those minerals.

• To compete with China, Ford said a bipartisan industrial policy is needed. "Having a planning horizon that we can count on makes a huge difference, because our lead times are longer than political lead times," Ford said.
• He also said flying cars are "very possible."

In a View from the Top conversation, Accenture Federal Services CEO Ron Ash shared his concerns over the AI boom, saying the U.S. is in a prototyping bubble.

• "My biggest concern is that we win this race for developing the best AI technology and we lose the race to deploy it," he said.

Go deeper: Watch the full event.