Hundreds of prominent economists, including 16 Nobel laureates, signed a statement titled “We Must Act Now” warning that AI could drive an economic transformation larger than the Industrial Revolution, unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame.
The statement, organized by Stanford’s Erik Brynjolfsson and published with more than 200 signatories, warns that AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years. It could bring risks including large-scale job displacement alongside opportunities such as major gains in living standards. The signatories include figures from across the political spectrum – Paul Krugman, Niall Ferguson, Tyler Cowen – as well as technologists Reid Hoffman and Eric Schmidt and former policymakers Jason Furman, Gita Gopinath, and Gina Raimondo.
The statement calls on economists, policymakers, and technology leaders to 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. The statement is now approaching 2,000 signatories.
The debate highlights what may be the most crucial economic question of the age: whether the pro-humanity benefits of AI can be enjoyed while policymakers work to prevent its less desirable side effects.
