Economists, tech leaders warn AI could bring 'large-scale job displacement' and other risks

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Set us as preferred Many of the smartest people in the world warned governments, companies and people Monday that they need to be ready for the deep impact that artificial intelligence is going to have on the economy.More than 200 economists, researchers and tech leaders said artificial intelligence could transform the economy for the better and for worse and fuel risks including “large-scale job displacement.”In a statement, the group said AI could become more powerful over a decade, driving an unprecedented economic transformation that could bring downsides but also opportunities such as “major gains in living standards.”“We must act now to guide AI to complement humans rather than simply imitate them — and to generate prosperity for the many, not just the few,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, a Stanford University professor and director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, in a separate statement.Brynjolfsson is among the prominent individuals who signed the statement titled “We Must Act Now” to urge economists, policymakers and tech leaders to better understand how AI will transform the economy.The group is pushing for the creation of more guardrails, incentives and institutions to “steer AI in a direction that complements humans and benefits society.”Among those who signed the statement were Nobel laureates, AI researchers and tech leaders from California venture capital firms and companies including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google.The tech leaders included Eric Schmidt, former Google chief executive; Reid Hoffman, a LinkedIn co-founder; Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist; Yann LeCun, a computer scientist; and Jack Clark, a co-founder of Anthropic.

Economists from Harvard, Stanford, MIT and other prominent universities were also on the list.The statement highlights some of the anxiety surrounding the latest ad...