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Jasmine Sun thanked David Wallace-Wells for covering her AI populism piece in his…

2026-05-08 · 18:59 UTC ·@jasminewsun ·1 min read

Brief

Jasmine Sun, thanking David Wallace-Wells for citing her work in the NYT (May 8, 2026), warns that AI populism will produce sustained, politically driven backlash. She contends public concern about AI will decouple from technical expertise, with opponents treating AI as an elite project, and she frames attacks on Sam Altman as early ‘warning shots’ of escalating political violence.

Why it matters

Jasmine Sun thanked David Wallace-Wells for covering her AI populism piece in his New York Times article (NYT link shared; NYT piece dated 2026-05-08).

Key details

  • She argues the AI backlash will intensify: ‘From now until forever, “caring a lot about AI” will no longer be correlated with “knowing a lot about AI,”’ and many opponents view AI as an elite political project rather than a specific technology.
  • Sun calls incidents like the assassination attempts on Sam Altman ‘warning shots’ and explicitly likens them to the murder of Charlie Kirk and the UHC CEO as examples of how nasty AI politics will become.
Source evidence

appreciate @dwallacewells for covering my AI populism piece in his latest for the NYT. we should take the AI backlash seriously, if not always literally!

nytimes.com/2026/05/08/magaz…

jasmine sun (@jasminewsun)

I wrote about AI populism and Sam Altman's attackers: incidents like these are only warning shots for how nasty AI politics will get.

From now until forever, “caring a lot about AI” will no longer be correlated with “knowing a lot about AI.” Most of AI's opponents view AI not as a specific technology but as an elite political project to be resisted.

From that lens, the assassination attempts on Altman should be seen in a similar vein to the murder of Charlie Kirk and the UHC CEO.

jasmi.news/p/warning-shots

— https://nitter.net/jasminewsun/status/2043749634238291987#m