Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, 86, told a podcast host this summer that he had no idea what ChatGPT or Claude was until about a week before the interview. He has never visited a data center. He is running for an 18th term in a Congress that is supposed to write the rules for the most disruptive technology since the printing press.
The Quote That Is Now Everywhere
The clip is from the "America, Actually" podcast, hosted by Astead Herndon, and the New York Post reports it is resurfacing this week as the AI debate heats up across the country. Herndon asked Clyburn a simple question: do you ever use ChatGPT or Claude?
"Believe it or not, I didn't know what that was until a week ago," Clyburn answered, according to the Post. Herndon, clearly trying to be gracious, replied, "I'm jealous. You've got yourself in a bubble."
Clyburn did not argue the point. "That may sound strange to you. I didn't know what that was," he said. Asked whether he had ever been to a data center, the Post reports he answered no.
The Follow-Up Was Worse Than the Answer
Herndon pressed him on the obvious problem. People are anxious about how AI could change their jobs, so how does a lawmaker who is distant from the technology legislate on it?
Clyburn's reply, as quoted by the Post: "I have a great staff. You know, I wish I could know everything. I don't know everything, and I don't spend my time trying to learn everything. What I spend my time doing is trying to surround myself with people who do know stuff."
He added: "I know how to legislate. I know how to build relationships. I hire people who put knowledge into the game that I can practice."
In Fairness, He Has a Point (Sort Of)
Let's be fair for a second, because the Dingo Daily is not in the business of pretending nuance doesn't exist. No member of Congress is a world expert on everything. Nobody on the Armed Services Committee can personally rebuild a jet engine. Delegating to experts is how the institution works, or is supposed to.
And Clyburn's record is real. The Post itself calls him a man with an incredible legacy, in the words of one critic it quoted, and building relationships and counting votes is a legitimate skill. Politicians who can actually get bills passed are rarer than they should be.
But here's the thing. Delegation only works if you know enough to ask the right questions. If you learned what the technology was a week ago, how do you know whether your staff is steering you well? How do you spot the lobbyist who is selling you a bridge? You can't grade an exam in a subject you've never opened the textbook for.
The Internet Did What the Internet Does
The reaction on X was brutal, per the Post. One user wrote, "This is insane. We are so doomed as a country to be governed by the elderly. Jim Clyburn is an incredible man with an incredible legacy. But this ... this is horrendous. AI is altering society on a daily basis."
That post is aimed at a bigger target than one congressman. The Post notes there is widespread concern about a Congress full of sick and geriatric lawmakers, and Clyburn's quote is now the cleanest possible exhibit for that argument. It is short, it is quotable, and it comes with a built-in punchline.
It is worth remembering that this complaint is not new. Senators once asked Mark Zuckerberg how Facebook makes money if the service is free, and he had to explain, with remarkable patience, "Senator, we run ads." Every few years Congress gets another chance to prove it hasn't updated its operating system.
New York City Council Is Not Waiting Around
The clip got a fresh boost Monday when New York City Councilwoman Sandy Nurse reposted it. "Well, this clip doesn't inspire any confidence in Federal legislators," she wrote. "It's actually great that we're having this hearing and moving legislation as the largest municipality in the country."
The Post reports that earlier that day the City Council held a hearing on AI safety featuring Anthropic whistleblower Jacob Coxon, among others. So while Washington figures out what the acronym stands for, the largest city in the country is already hearing testimony from someone who used to work inside one of the companies building this stuff.
The Post says it has sought comment from Clyburn's office. At the time of its reporting, nothing had come back.
The Part Where Both Parties Should Squirm
Before anyone on the right gets too excited, remember that the Capitol is not exactly stocked with digital natives on either side of the aisle. Age and tech illiteracy are bipartisan afflictions. The difference is that Clyburn, to his credit, told the truth about it instead of bluffing his way through a hearing.
That honesty is the one thing in this story worth admiring. A lot of members would rather nod sagely and let a staffer feed them a question card than admit they have never opened the app.
The Dingo Take
An 86-year-old man who just learned what ChatGPT is should not be one of the people deciding how it gets regulated, and saying that out loud is not ageism, it is arithmetic.
Clyburn deserves credit for not faking it. He said he didn't know, he said he leans on staff, and he didn't spin it into some folksy wisdom about how real leaders don't need to know things. Okay, he sort of did spin it. But the underlying honesty is more than most of his colleagues would offer. The problem is not that he admitted the gap. The problem is that the gap exists in the first place, at the exact moment the stakes are enormous.
Here is what the voters can do about it: ask every incumbent, every challenger, every candidate the same question Herndon asked. Do you use this stuff? Have you ever been to a data center? Do you know what you are voting on? If the answer is "I have a great staff," fine, but then tell us who the staff is, who pays them, and who is whispering in their ears. Because right now the people who understand AI best are the ones selling it, and that is not a group you want writing their own rulebook.
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