Over 200 of the world’s most influential economists, technology executives and researchers have signed an open letter warning that artificial intelligence (AI) poses a serious and growing threat to jobs. The letter also says that the governments are not moving fast enough to prepare for what is coming. The letter, titled “We Must Act Now” and subtitled “A Statement on AI’s Transformation of the Economy”, was organised by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. At just 88 words, it is deliberately concise.
Who all have signed the letter
Among those who signed: former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Nobel Prize laureates Joseph Stiglitz, Daron Acemoglu, and Simon Johnson. Also on the list are Google AI lead Jeff Dean, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and OpenAI finance chief Sarah Friar — making it one of the rare documents that brings together both AI builders and the economists studying the technology’s consequences. Other include Godfathers of AI Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, and Vinod Khosla.
What the letter says
The letter’s argument is straightforward: It warns that AI could become “radically more powerful” over the coming decade, and without meaningful action from policymakers, the result could be “large-scale job displacement” on a scale the world has not seen before.We Must Act NowA Statement on AI’s Transformation of the EconomyAI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years.This could drive an unprecedented transformation of our economy, larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame. It could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement, as well as opportunities such as major gains in living standards.Economists, policymakers and technology leaders must 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 letter comes as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has predicted that AI could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. Many economists and technologists sit somewhere in between, arguing that AI is more likely to transform jobs than replace them outright.