The Assault on Human Intelligence, Human Worth, and even Democracy

And the Hope provided by Scott Pelley and Wake Forest

We opened Humanity Amplified with the observation that investment in artificial intelligence was far exceeding investments in human intelligence.

Now, at least in the US, we have a frontal assault on human intelligence.

In K-12, we have a signficant gutting of resources that flowed through the Department of Education. In the new federal budget, which has already passed the House, none of that money has been reallocated to the states.

At the university level, NSF funding has been gutted, grant reimbursement rates have been gutted, and a signficant amount of funding to many leading universities has been rescinded.

Most recently, the administration has decided to “pause” visa appointments for international students, seeking to first examine their social media profiles before admitting them.

Because, you know, 18 year olds criticizing some US policy, President (the same one that most of the world is criticizing) , and/or one its few remaining allies on social media is likely to bring down the country. I never knew we were so fragile.

We all know (or should know) that that is bullshit.

Like the attack on DEI and its “principles and frameworks” (see your most recent NSF grant conditions if yours hasn’t yet been rescinded), this is simply a Trojan horse that is part of the administration’s attack on “knowledge itself.”

It may be its most brutal blow.

International students serve as a crucial financial lifeline for US higher education institutions, contributing significantly more revenue per student than their domestic counterparts. These students typically pay full tuition without access to federal financial aid, state subsidies, or in-state tuition rates. At public universities, international students often pay two to three times more than in-state residents, while at private institutions, they generally pay the full sticker price without the substantial financial aid packages that many American students receive.

International students subsidized US students’ attendance. You can see a report that I generated on their economic value here.

Why is the administration doing this?

There are various theories.

Angst over the state of education. It is obvious to anyone that some educational practices in “grades” 9-16 (high school and university) are outdated/irrelevant. There is a growing disconnect, especially in the world of AI, between what is being taught and how it is being taught to high school and university students and the “real world.” For many, that has reached crisis porportions, and there are well meaning advocates of blowing up the system in hopes of coming up with anything that might be better.

The loss of the economic value of intelligence. While many refused to acknowldge it, the economic value of human intelligence is declining. Companies can hire AIs at the fraction of the cost of employing us to do more and more of what we do. Customer service agents, coders, and designers are already being eliminated. College graduates in technology fields are struggling to find jobs. As someone who works in the biosciences told me the other day, it’s a great field if you already have a job, but they just don’t need as many entry level workers as they used to. That work can be handled by customized GPTs, of which their company has close to 1,000.

Does human intelligence still have something to offer that AI doesn’t? Of course, but many companies aren’t willing to pay for that anymore.

This is compunded by the growing gap between the relevance of current education practice reference above and the emerging world. Content knowledge is becoming less important. Companies don’t need stochastic parrots that can pass tests that they textbook industry profits from; they need systems thinkers with metacognitive skills that can create. Individuals who will live in a world where there are fewer “jobs” to be done for others need to learn how to generate revenue, build and manage AIs, and relate well to humans. This isn’t the focus of current education.

Businesses that influence politics through lobbying and campaign contributions have little incentive to fund an education system that produces generally intelligent graduates when they need fewer workers overall. Moreover, when they do need specific skills, the education system isn't even training students in the right areas.

Industry supported funding for the “industrial” system of education when we needed an industrial system of education. We don’t need it anymore.

The loss of the need for democracy. As I’ve previously noted here, democracy as a political system is quite young. Arguably, democracy arose not because humanity woke up to some grand ideals but because industrialization required workers who lived in cities. In order to keep workers engaged and placate demands, governments had to give them a stake in the system. Under this theory, democracy, like the modern education system, emerged not from ideals but from industrial needs.

In a world where workers are no longer needed, why would those who have amasssed enormous economic and political power, and even possess substantial control over AI, continue to support democracy? There is no value in giving us a say.

What is unfolding in the US today is real and follows from these underlying economic realities. The US is becoming less democratic.

In the Wake Forest commencment address, Scott Pelley opined —

Why is this happening? Because we have less value. We have less value to industry. We have less value to government. Democracy doesn’t need to be given to us.

And it’s more than that. Those with less value can be disposed.

During the UK's agricultural industrialization (18th–19th centuries), the Enclosure Movement privatized communal lands, displacing rural workers and forcing mass migration to cities. With mechanized farming reducing labor needs and urban industries unable to absorb the influx, widespread poverty ensued. The British government then implemented assisted migration programs to relocate over 127,000 impoverished workers to Australia between 1832–1850, framing it as solving domestic labor surpluses while supplying colonial development.

Just as 19th-century elites deflected anger from privatization/industrialization onto displaced farmers, modern policymakers increasingly scapegoat immigrants for economic insecurity caused by automation. For example, AI tools like USCIS's "Predicted to Naturalize" algorithm and ICE's "Hurricane Score" now automate deportation decisions, echoing Britain's bureaucratic management of surplus population.

The accelerating automation of labor through AI systems is poised to create a new class of "AI refugees"—workers across industries from trucking to legal analysis whose roles become obsolete faster than reskilling programs (if they are useful) can adapt. This has been described as a “white collar bloodbath.”

Artificial Intelligence has ascended.

Unlike historical displacements tied to geographic borders, this crisis will scatter victims across economic strata, severing stable career paths and destabilizing communities that once relied on these industries.

This impending wave of AI refugees exposes a moral reckoning: societies that deported 19th-century paupers to colonies, incarcerated Japanese Americans during WWII, or today detain asylum seekers in automated ICE facilities must now confront whether they’ll extend the dignity they denied others. As Britain’s assisted migration policies enriched colonial elites while impoverishing deportees[original answer], modern proposals to address AI unemployment through universal basic income trials or AI profit taxes remain underfunded compared to border drones and deportation algorithms. In fact, in the US we are seeing the destruction of the social infrastructure while tax cuts for the wealthy are extended.

The reality is that as the economic value of humans collapses, so too does any need to support our survival. The rise of AI and the gutting of the social support structure are not unrelated.

Wings

I first joined Wake Forest University as a graduate-student debate coach, stepping straight from my own high school and undergraduate debating into a program that set a high bar for research, mentoring, and tournament preparation.

I kept returning—most summers and some weekends. Those seasons at Wake were formative; the coaches, professors, and students there helped me develop the skills and habits that still guide my work with debaters today.

For decades Wake Forest has treated debate as a laboratory for human intelligence—training advocates to weigh evidence, test ethics, exercise judgment, and empower audiences.

Wake Forest, like many of my coaches and debate programs when I was younger, gave me my wings.

Scott Pelley charges us to use those wings.

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Scott Pelley’s commencement address at Wake Forest turns the reflections above into an explicit mandate. By reminding graduates that “Your country needs you. The country that has given you so much is calling you, the Class of 2025. The country needs you, and it needs you today.,” he moves the conversation from celebration to obligation.

He lists the institutions now under strain – rule of law, journalism, universities, free speech – and argues that the surest counterweight is a citizenry trained to seek facts, debate differences, and speak without fear. That description fits Wake Forest’s debate community precisely: a place that has long treated argument not as verbal combat but as civic practice, equipping students and coaches alike to weigh evidence, test ethics, and defend inclusive democracy.

In short, Pelley's speech affirms what Wake Forest has always taught us: skills honed in debate rounds are meant for public service, and the moment to deploy them is now.