On the American Left, a familiar idea has taken root: that slavery was not just one feature of the young republic’s economy but its actual engine, the true source of the wealth that later carried the United States into industrial preeminence.

Calls to regulate the artificial intelligence (AI) sector have reached a fever pitch over the last week. Fearmongering about the prospects of a totally unregulated AI industry has been around as long as the industry itself. But the current storm began last Tuesday when an engineer at Anthropic—the firm best known for its chatbot Claude—resigned, citing safety concerns.