Madden Mischief

Pope Leo XIV’s recent warning to safeguard against the most disruptive effects of artificial intelligence on humanity has begun to sink in. 

Over the next five years AT&T is said to be planning to invest $38 billion to hire and train blue-collar front-line workers, many of whom might lack college degrees yet are skilled technicians ready to get their hands dirty expanding its fiber network.  

Leo’s declaration came as a papal encyclical outlining his desire to see human dignity protected in an age when technology threatens to replace humans in many professional and social circles. He presented it alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, a major A.I. developer, in a symbolic gesture of rapport between leaders of the spiritual and technological worlds.

The Pope urged that by applying A.I. just to sacrifice jobs for greater profits would make the technology “a force antagonistic to humanity.”

One of the leading corporations following the Pope’s guidance today once was my PR firm’s largest client we were proud to serve during what was a challenging time for Ma Bell. 

Back in the 1980’s, my PR firm TransMedia Group launched a campaign to address a landmark antitrust case that split AT&T into several smaller companies, but eventually the Baby Bells merged back returning AT&T to the leadership role it continues to play in telecommunications.

From boardrooms in Dallas to the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio, the employees fueling AT&T’s next wave of growth probably won’t be fresh out of college flashing expensive diplomas. More likely they’ll be skilled blue-collar workers ready to get their hands dirty. 

AT&T will be seeking people who know how to work with electricity, understand photonics, can go into folks’ homes and connect infrastructure to make it work right, said AT&T CEO John Stankey in a recent interview on CNBC.  “We find that we’ve got to go out and find them, train them, and incent them to come in,” he said.

AT&T’s dilemma — huntingfor blue-collar workers at a time when a record number of college students are projected to graduate this spring, underscoring the palpable crisis facing new degree holders as the first wave of the AI revolution hits the U.S. economy. 

The saying used to be “Go to college, get a degree and claim your place in the middle class,” but that was back when factories gave way to offices and the U.S. economy increasingly rewarded credentials over physical labor and a college diploma became one of the clearest symbols of upward mobility.

But as A.I. spreads across corporate America, that’s changing.  Now the Pope has given A.I. a clarion call to give blue-collar workers entry-level work that once gave graduates their start but now is moving in the Pope’s direction of providing new opportunities for the diploma-less across America.

So, Pope Leo, there’s hope we’ll be implementing more of that fundamental role you’re advocating for employment to provide equal opportunities leading to a more stable social order for all human beings.

Tom Madden is founder and CEO of TransMedia Group, the PR firm he started when he left NBC.  Today the firm’s president is his daughter, Adrienne Mazzone.  When not doing PR for clients, Madden is writing books, blogs and articles about a subject he knows well, working with media to get a story out.