Rep. Don Beyer (D-8) and his three challengers expressed wariness of data centers and artificial intelligence in a recent debate that kicked off the eight-week sprint to Election Day.
But several of the contenders also warned against rushed efforts to corral the emerging technology at the expense of the good it could provide.
“I understand there’s a risk, there’s nefarious actors, [but] we should not be scared of technology,” Tony Sabio, the Republican challenger to Beyer, said at a forum on Tuesday (Sept. 8) sponsored by the Arlington County Civic Federation.
Beyer agreed that AI has the potential to be a net plus, pointing to health care advances already in the pipeline.
“There’s a lot of good that can come from it,” he said.
But with the public turning increasingly against the data centers required to power AI programming, candidates either added caveats to their support, or expressed the desire to pull back entirely.
“Halt things right now, until we know what’s going on,” Libertarian candidate Shelly Arnoldi said of the proliferation of data centers across Northern Virginia and the nation.
As for artificial intelligence? “AI has been rolled out too quickly,” Arnoldi said. “I don’t trust our government to control it.”
The fourth contender, independent Tim Sharman, fears impacts on the nation’s workforce if AI causes mass displacement in significant industries.
On data centers, Sharman said he doesn’t want a one-size-fits-all policy handed down from Washington.
“It needs to be a local decision,” Sharman said.
The 40-minute debate also saw candidates tackle the increasingly controversial use of Flock license plate readers, the role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), President Donald Trump’s efforts to build an arch near Arlington National Cemetery and whether Beyer’s experience should be enough to merit him a new two-year term.
The 8th District includes portions of eastern Fairfax County as well as all of Arlington County and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. Beyer, a former lieutenant governor, was elected in 2014, succeeding Jim Moran, and fended off four challengers in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary.
The inner suburbs of Northern Virginia are Democratic bastions, but Arlington Civic Federation president Nicholas Giacobbe said political forums are an opportunity for the public to hear from all candidates seeking their vote.
“There are a lot of different opinions, lots of different positions,” he said of the field of contenders gathered on Sept. 8.
Fairfax County is home to three congressional districts: the 8th, 10th and 11th. About 240,000 registered Fairfax County voters reside in the 8th. The county has about 16,000 residents living in the 10th, and about 500,000 residents in the 11th, which also encompasses the entirety of Fairfax City, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
