Most local news packages run two minutes or less. When Ron Jones of 11Alive sat down with me, he came back with ten and a half, and I’m grateful he gave the conversation room to breathe. The piece aired on the 11Alive streaming show on Wednesday, September 9.

Ron wanted to talk about the argument at the center of Capitalism for All: artificial intelligence is about to reorganize the American economy the way the automobile did a century ago. Around 1900, horses powered everything, from farms to freight to the family carriage, and whole industries were built around keeping them working. Within a generation that economy was gone. Jobs fell during the transition, then came back stronger on the other side through automobile manufacturing and the modern middle class. Kodak, Circuit City, Sears and Blockbuster all teach the same lesson. If you don’t like the change you’re seeing, you’ll like irrelevance even less.

We also got practical about the AI data centers being debated across metro Atlanta. Communities are right to negotiate hard on power, water and tax base. The part we keep undercounting is the work. These facilities need plumbers, electricians, data technicians, robotics technicians and software engineers, and you can’t AI plumbing. That means new careers, new contractors and new small business owners, if our people are positioned to take them.

That is why Operation HOPE is layering AI literacy through HOPE AI on top of financial literacy, and why I built Juanita AI, a financial coach named for my mother, available at two in the morning when someone needs it. My advice to every parent is simple: get your child an AI account and let them spend real time learning it every day. Thank you, Ron, and the 11Alive team. Watch the full interview below.

Watch the full 11Alive interview with Ron Jones.