Abdul El-Sayed, Mike Rogers answer questions about AI, lowering housing costs from Detroit Economic Club
Michigan U.S. Senate candidates Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed are in the home stretch of the 2026 midterm election. On Tuesday, they laid out their different financial visions at the Detroit Economic Club.
The two candidates recently met for a debate on Oct. 8 and are gearing up for their second debate on Wednesday.
El-Sayed and Rogers each spent about 20 minutes answering the same eight questions, focusing on different sectors of the economy.
On lowering housing costs, Rogers said, "If we get this right, we can have houses being built, we have students from the high school participating in the apprenticeship of building these homes and giving them a skill set."
On whether to regulate artificial intelligence, El-Sayed said, "We need AI under democracy and AI under control. AI should not be able to do certain things like fire weapons or fire you or deny your healthcare. We need an SCC or FDA-style regulatory agency that can oversee the development of these models to make sure we don't open Pandora's box only for us to hate it at the end."
In an interview on CBS News' "Face The Nation" last month, El-Sayed called for public oversight of AI to prevent it from serving the "interests of a few against the well-being of a many."
Attendees said that, for the most part, they've already made up their minds about who they're going to vote for, but said Tuesday's event is an opportunity to hear more about how each candidate will improve the economy.
"I know who I'm voting for, I know who my guy is," said Michael Hale Jr., a member of the Club and an attendee on Tuesday. "But again, it's always good to see the other side and to learn, hey, what are the policies across the aisle that we need to hear?"
