Economists, tech leaders warn of AI job displacement

Economists, tech leaders warn of AI job displacement as more than 200 experts urge governments and companies to prepare for AI’s economic impact, including “large-scale job displacement.” In a statement circulated last week, the group said AI could become more powerful over the next decade, driving an unprecedented transformation that carries both risks and opportunities, including “major gains in living standards.” Erik Brynjolfsson, a Stanford University professor and director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, said in a separate message that leaders should guide AI to complement humans rather than imitate them. The statement calls for additional “guardrails,” incentives, and institutions to “steer AI” toward societal benefit. Signatories include Nobel laureates, AI researchers, and technology leaders from companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, alongside figures like Eric Schmidt, Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, Yann LeCun, and Jack Clark. Researchers also noted uncertainty, saying the field is “driving in the fog.”