According to Fortune, we’re facing an AI revolution comparable to past technological shifts and need a response as bold as Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 Land Grant Act. The authors propose a Digital-AI Land Grant Act to build a nationwide university and college system specifically for AI education and training. They note President Donald J. Trump has already taken initial steps by signing an executive order that established a White House Task Force on AI Education and a Presidential AI Challenge. However, they argue these piecemeal efforts are insufficient and a fragmented state-by-state approach would leave communities behind. The proposal suggests funding this through an education tax on companies profiting from cyberspace, calling this a “digital dividend” similar to taxes on gambling or alcohol.
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The AI inequality trap we can’t repeat
Here’s the thing that really struck me about this argument. The authors point out that the last tech revolution—information and communications—created immense wealth but also deepened inequality. Prosperity clustered in a few metro areas while rural, industrial, and minority communities fell further behind. That’s a pattern we absolutely cannot afford to repeat with AI.
Think about it. Without some kind of coordinated national strategy, what’s going to happen? AI will probably accelerate wealth concentration even more dramatically. Geographic divides will intensify. Trust in institutions? That’ll keep eroding. We’re basically looking at a future where the AI haves and have-nots become permanently entrenched.
How a digital land grant would actually work
The comparison to Lincoln’s 1862 move is actually pretty clever. Back then, land sales financed new higher education. Today, the equivalent “land” is cyberspace. The internet was built on taxpayer-funded research and has generated extraordinary wealth for tech companies. So the idea is that a portion of that wealth should be reinvested to prepare the workforce for AI.
An education tax on companies profiting from cyberspace would fund this whole thing. It’s framed as a “digital dividend”—which is a nice way of saying tech companies should pay forward some of their success to the society that enabled it. Basically, we helped build your playground, now help us make sure everyone can play.
This isn’t just about competitiveness
What I find compelling about this argument is that it frames the AI challenge as more than just staying ahead of China or maintaining economic dominance. It’s about ensuring every American, in every community, has the knowledge and opportunity to succeed in a world shared with intelligent machines.
The proposal outlines some concrete benefits: connecting research universities with community colleges, growing regional AI ecosystems, training everything from cybersecurity specialists to manufacturing technicians. And they talk about “lighthouse projects” that would let regular people—kids, families, seniors—actually experience trustworthy AI benefits. That last part is crucial for rebuilding public trust.
So here’s my question: Can we actually pull this off? In our current political climate, a massive federal initiative like this seems… challenging. But the authors make a persuasive case that the alternative—leaving AI education to the market or a patchwork of state programs—is a recipe for repeating the inequality mistakes of the past. Lincoln invested in America’s future during the Civil War. Maybe we need that same bold thinking now.
