More than 200 leading economists, AI researchers, business executives and policy makers, including 16 Nobel laureates, have signed a public letter calling on governments and institutions to prepare for the major economic changes increasingly powerful AI could trigger in the next decade.
The statement titled “We Must Act Now: A Statement on AI’s Transformation of the Economy,” was spearheaded by Stanford University’s Digital Economy Lab and has since drawn signatories from top universities, technology companies and research organizations globally.
The statement says AI could become dramatically more capable in the next ten years. The signatories say this rapid progress could reshape the global economy on a scale greater than the Industrial Revolution, but in a far shorter time.
Although AI opens up huge possibilities in the field of productivity as well as standard of living and economic opportunities, it leads to critical threats such as widespread job losses and destabilization in the labor market.
“Economists, policymakers and technology leaders must act now to understand the economics of transformative AI and to build the incentives, guardrails, and institutions needed to steer AI in a direction that complements humans and benefits society,” read the statement.
The statement has been prepared by Erik Brynjolfsson, director of Stanford Digital Economy Lab, Ajay Agrawal from University of Toronto, Anton Korinek from University of Virginia and Anthropic and Tom Cunningham from METR.
Among the signatories, there are 16 Nobel laureates–Michael Spence, Daron Acemoglu, Joseph Stiglitz, Simon Johnson, Christopher A. Pissarides, Paul Milgrom, George Akerlof, Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt, Oliver D. Hart, Bengt Holmström, Alvin Roth, Michael Kremer, Roger B. Myerson, Paul Krugman, and Ben Bernanke.
The statement comes in the wake of a recent analysis report on the transformative impact of artificial intelligence in the next decade, with AI companies investing billions of dollars in infrastructure as well as technological advancements.
The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis report prepared by Citrini Research paints a stark picture of an AI led economy and dismal market state where the global unemployment rate has risen to 10.2% in the next two years from the current 4.9%.
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Pic Credit: Better Images of AI, Jamillah Knowles and Digit
