Explainer: US Vice-President Harris’ views on business issues
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US Vice-President Kamala Harris has spoken out on artificial intelligence and environmental justice issues.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - US Vice-President Kamala Harris is potentially poised to become the Democratic presidential nominee in the November election.
Tech regulation
As California attorney-general, Ms Harris sued eBay in 2012, alleging anti-competitive hiring practices surrounding a no-poaching agreement with Intuit that led to a nearly US$4 million settlement in 2014.
In 2015, she compelled start-up Houzz to hire a chief privacy officer after allegations that the home design app had recorded sales calls without proper notification and consent.
One of her signature issues was curtailing the distribution of pornography on social media, particularly “revenge porn”, a practice involving the posting of explicit photos without the subject’s consent. She took credit for a pressure campaign that led to Facebook, Alphabet's Google, Microsoft and others taking measures to remove certain explicit images.
“I cannot emphasise enough how leaders in technology have stepped up,” said Ms Harris at a news conference then. “I’m not suggesting any of them were happy to get a call from the Attorney-General saying, ‘Come in, we want to talk with you’. But they all did. They did.”
Big tech
As a candidate for California attorney-general, Ms Harris reportedly assured potential donors that she was “a capitalist”.
She has generally been seen as cosy with prominent tech executives and investors. She attended the wedding of Mr Sean Parker, an early Facebook executive. Her brother-in-law Tony West is the chief legal officer for Uber.
She also accepted donations from Mr Reid Hoffman, a prominent venture capitalist and co-founder of LinkedIn, as well as billionaire John Doerr and venture capitalist Ron Conway.
Big tech executives also supported her, including Ms Sheryl Sandberg, then chief operating officer of Facebook, and Mr Marc Benioff, the billionaire chief executive of Salesforce.
Climate and energy
Ms Harris’ climate and energy positions are similar to President Joe Biden’s, but throughout her career she has made clear that clean energy and environmental justice are priorities.
When Mr Biden announced Ms Harris as his running mate in the 2020 race, he emphasised her tough stance against big oil when she served in key roles in California, noting lawsuits she had launched both as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011, and then as the state’s attorney-general until January 2017, when she became a US senator.
In 2023, Ms Harris made her debut at international climate negotiations, announcing a US$3 billion (S$4 billion) commitment to the Green Climate Fund and making her first major international speech focused on climate.
As Vice-President, Ms Harris has also been involved in Environmental Protection Agency policy roll-outs that tackled longstanding environmental justice issues, such as a multibillion-dollar programme to replace lead pipes and lead paint around the country.
Artificial intelligence
As Vice-President, Ms Harris has been particularly outspoken on artificial intelligence (AI).
She warned against the “existential” threat of AI and said it could “endanger the very existence of humanity”, in a November 2023 address.
In meeting with tech executives such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Ms Harris warned that they have a “moral” obligation to guard against AI’s possible dangers.
She backed an AI executive order from Mr Biden that seeks stronger protections for consumers, singling out AI-generated scam calls and the impact of unlabelled AI-generated content. REUTERS
