Tons of of economists say in an open letter that institutions “must act now” to handle how artificial intelligence could transform the economy and will put many individuals out of labor.
The statement released Monday was signed by top economists, together with computer scientists and a few executives at tech corporations including Anthropic, Google and OpenAI.
“AI may develop into radically more powerful over the following 10 years,” says the letter organized by Stanford University’s digital economy lab. “This might drive an unprecedented transformation of our economy, larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time-frame. It could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, in addition to opportunities comparable to major gains in living standards.”
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The letter, which has only 4 sentences, says leaders must “construct the incentives, guardrails, and institutions needed to steer AI in a direction that enhances humans and advantages society.”
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The Stanford lab says the letter has thus far been signed by greater than 200 economists and AI researchers, including 16 winners of a Nobel Prize.
Computer scientist and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio was among the many signatories and said in a separate statement that based on the trajectory of AI development, “it is extremely plausible that AI will drastically transform our economies.”
“We should be intentional and make collective, democratic decisions, somewhat than letting market forces play out and risking leaving most residents behind,” wrote Bengio, a professor on the University of Montreal.
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