Artificial intelligence is transforming the economy and now is the time to ensure the technology benefits society, according to a statement signed by more than 200 economists and AI researchers.
The Stanford Digital Economy Lab, which hosts the online statement, said in a press release on Monday (July 13) that 16 Nobel laureates were among the signatories of the statement.
Other signatories include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, according to the page where the statement is posted. Reid Hoffman, Greylock Partner and LinkedIn Co-Founder; Yann LeCun, Executive Chairman, Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs; Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures; 10 people from Anthropic. Six companies are partnering with OpenAI.
The statement reads:
“AI has the potential to become dramatically more powerful over the next decade.”
“This could trigger an unprecedented transformation of our economy, larger in scale than the Industrial Revolution but unfolding over a much shorter period of time. It could bring opportunities, such as significant improvements in living standards, but also risks, such as mass job displacement.”
“Economists, policymakers, and technology leaders must act now to understand the economics of transformative AI and build the incentives, guardrails, and institutions needed to guide AI in directions that complement humans and benefit society.”
This statement was compiled by four economists. Erik Brynjolfsson, professor at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Ajay Agrawal, Professor, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Anton Korinek is a professor at the University of Virginia and is currently on leave at Antropic. said METR researcher Tom Cunningham, according to a press release.
Brynjolfsson said in a press release: “We must act now to guide AI to complement humans rather than simply imitate them, and bring prosperity to the many, not just the few.”
“Whether rapidly advancing AI will broadly improve global living standards or significantly concentrate wealth is not predetermined; it depends on how we choose to restructure today’s political and economic systems,” Agrawal said in a release.
“Strategies and institutions cannot be improvised in the midst of change. Waiting for certainty means arriving too late,” Korinek said in a statement.
“This is the right time for a concerted effort to bring clarity to a confusing situation,” Cunningham said in a statement.
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