Former regional Fed president: We need an "AI land grant act"
Marketplace Tech
American Public Media
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Big tech companies have invested hundreds of billions in AI infrastructure, including data centers that are popping up all over the country. Constructing the facilities brings in jobs to local communities, but what happens once the construction is finished? Former Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Pat Harker says tech companies owe a longer-lasting benefit to the communities that host data centers.
Marketplace tech host Nova Safo talked with Pat Harker about his proposal for a “digital AI land grant act.”
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Worried about your future in tech? |
| 0:03.0 | Master new skills. |
| 0:05.0 | Accelerate your team's impact and redefine what's possible with plural site. |
| 0:10.0 | We're more than just another online learning platform. |
| 0:14.0 | We're shattering the skills gap and shaping future generations of technologists. |
| 0:20.0 | Transform your work. Transform your work. |
| 0:22.1 | Transform your team. |
| 0:24.1 | Ready to tap in? |
| 0:25.9 | Visit us at pluralsight.com to learn more. |
| 0:31.1 | Is there a near 200-year-old solution to transition American workers toward AI? |
| 0:37.5 | From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech. |
| 0:40.3 | I'm Novosafo. |
| 0:46.1 | In the mid-1800s, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Moral Act, granting vast swaths of federal land to states which then sold that land in order to fund universities. |
| 1:02.1 | Those universities taught skills needed to find jobs in the newly industrialized economy. |
| 1:07.9 | There are more than 100 land grant institutions still active today. Former Philadelphia |
| 1:14.2 | Fed President Pat Harker has co-authored an op-ed proposing a new land grant-type program to teach |
| 1:21.2 | skills Americans need for the artificial intelligence revolution. So what's land today? |
| 1:29.1 | It's cyberland, right? |
| 1:32.0 | Yes, we still have physical land, but it's really cyberland. |
| 1:35.8 | The action today, technologically, is in cyberspace. |
| 1:37.1 | It's technology. |
| 1:43.6 | And we need to get the American people, get them the skills they need to compete in this new era. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from American Public Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of American Public Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.