Vance's model of national shareholding plus union negotiations sounds like putting a bridle on the AI era, but it's hard to say who actually holds the reins.

Vice President Vance argues for setting up a sovereign wealth fund through national shareholding, and for introducing union collective bargaining—so that workers get a share at the decision-making table—preventing large-model companies from becoming cross-trillion-dollar, unconstrained monopolies. Musk, meanwhile, proposes a plan in which the Treasury directly issues funds to the public, arguing that with AI and robots driving output growth, production growth will outpace the money supply; direct cash payments will not be inflationary, and could even counter even a major deflationary spiral. The core disagreement is over wealth inequality: Vance favors state intervention and worker participation, while Musk favors direct intervention at the level of monetary policy.