Nearly 200 Economists and Tech Leaders Warn of A.I. Threats

Artificial intelligence could transform the economy faster than any previous technology, and policymakers must move equally quickly to figure out how to respond, a group of economists and researchers are warning.“A.I.may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years,” the researchers wrote in a statement released on Monday, adding that the technology “could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, as well as opportunities such as major gains in living standards.”The statement, titled “We Must Act Now,” was signed by nearly 200 people, including 15 Nobel laureates and the chief economists of two of the leading A.I.

labs, Open AI and Anthropic.Other notable signatories include Jack Clark, a co-founder of Anthropic; Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google; and Vinod Khosla, a prominent venture capitalist.Tech industry leaders have been warning for several years that as A.I.

grows more powerful, it could quickly take over a large share of human work, leading to widespread joblessness.Economists have tended to greet those predictions with skepticism, noting that technological changes tend to play out more gradually than predicted by industry boosters.Some economists, however, have grown concerned that A.I.

is spreading through the economy more quickly and more broadly than past technologies, and that their profession is downplaying the risks.The statement on Monday is the latest sign that such concerns are becoming more widespread.It warns that the effects of A.I.

could be “larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame.”...