Acemoglu on the harms of AI
In this paper, Daron Acemoglu argues that there are three broad areas in which the deployment of AI technologies may have economic and social costs, if not properly regulated.
- Collection and control of information: demand of AI technologies for data and the ability of AI techniques for processing vast amounts of data about users, consumers and citizens produces a number of potentially troubling downsides. These include: (a) privacy violation; (b) unfair competition; and (c) behavioral manipulation.
- Labor market effects of AI: Adoption of AI has not led to the creation of new labor-intensive tasks or provided tools for workers to have greater initiative. In this case there is the fear that the AI-human interplay might gradually turn humans into worse decision-makers as they hand more and more decisions to machines. In addition, the use of AI for monitoring of workers can generate significant social inefficiencies.
- AI, communication and democracy: AI has exacerbated various political and social problems through, for example, the creation of echo chambers in social media, which propagate false information and polarize society; and through big brother effects as AI increases the ability of governments to closely monitor and stamp out dissent.
[P]recisely because AI is a promising technological platform, aiming to transform every sector of the economy and every aspect of our social lives, it is imperative for us to study what its downsides are, especially on its current trajectory. It is in this spirit that I discussed the potential costs of AI this paper. My own belief is that several of these costs are real and we may see them multiply in the years to come.
Harms of AI
Author: Daron Acemoglu
From: MIT
Autor on AI’s impact on the labor market
[W]hat is the role of technology–digital or otherwise–in determining wages and shaping wage inequality? The answer is not obvious, and the successive evolution of thinking on this topic reflects the subtlety of the question. I present four answers below, corresponding to four strands of thinking on this topic, and discuss the distinct implications of each. I refer to these four paradigms as the education race, the task polarization model, the automation-reinstatement race, and the era of Artificial Intelligence uncertainty. The nuance of economic understanding has improved across each of these epochs. Yet, traditional economic optimism about the beneficent effects of technology for productivity and welfare has eroded as understanding has advanced. Given this intellectual trajectory, it would be natural to forecast an even darker horizon ahead. I refrain from doing that, however, because forecasting the “consequences” of technological change treats the future as a fate to be divined rather than an expedition to be undertaken. I conclude by discussing the opportunities and the challenges we collectively face in shaping this future.
The Labor Market Impacts of Technological Change: From Unbridled Enthusiasm to Qualified Optimism to Vast Uncertainty
Author: David Autor
From: MIT
