Before AI threatened to reshape the kind of blue-collar work he once did, Rep. Riley Moore was a welder on an Appalachian mining operation. Now, as the technology races into the workplace, Moore argues it could make workers like him safer and more productive rather than replace them.
The West Virginia Republican has taken that message to the Teamsters and other labor stakeholders as Congress and businesses grapple with how quickly AI should reshape the workplace and how much of a role government should play amid economic and national security concerns.
“I started my career off as a welder and I come from a blue-collar background, not just myself, my mother’s family [were] all welders actually. AI represents a massive potential for positive advancements in manufacturing. But it also represents potentially the nuclear bomb for work as we know it in the world,” Moore said in an exclusive interview Monday with Fox News Digital.
Representing a state still closely tied to mining and manufacturing, Moore has taken his message to the Teamsters and other labor stakeholders, arguing that AI should become a “force-multiplier” for workers rather than simply replace them.
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Moore said he leans toward finding the “positives” in AI development and that, if the technology can complement blue-collar labor rather than replace it, it could be a game-changer for the U.S. economy and its workers.
“I think AI certainly has the ability to extend the longevity of a worker in a particular trade. It can also make those jobs safer. It can extend the timeperiod in which somebody can work without injury. And it can also create better efficiencies, which then can also better paying jobs here in this country.”
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“Or, its the nuclear weapon [against] work, it could potentially eliminate jobs as we know it and get rid of what is really critical, I think, to being a human being: which is human purpose, which work is certainly part of that and the dignity of work and contributing to civil society.”
Moores district includes major commercial arteries like Interstates 79 and 81 and the new Trans-Allegheny U.S. 48, which the lawmaker helped open this year. The trucking industry, historically unionized, could benefit from AI, he said, while warning that self-driving rigs could endanger the trade.
“I’m against automated trucking, but I am in favor of having AI as part of trucking to make the road safer and keep that driver safer and make them more productive,” he said, considering AI could act as a “co-pilot” to protect against drowsy driving or other dangers that come from being inherently human. The trucker would remain employed, and crash-prone 81 could become less so:
“That creates the types of efficiencies that we’re looking for, certainly, but then also respects the dignity of the human being and the worker who is involved in it.”
Religious leaders have expressed similar concerns about AIs effect on the dignity of work. Pope Leo XIVs May encyclical considered two biblical models for the AI era: “constructing the Tower of Babel” or following Nehemiah in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
“We certainly want to be Nehemiah,” he said.
Moore has also spoken with and met with the Teamsters as unions grapple with AIs potential effect on their workers. A Teamsters spokesperson dec
