Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu warns of unemployment tripling in next decade without government intervention

“What we are living through with AI is unprecedented,” Acemoglu said. “The first phase of the industrial revolution lasted for 80 years. Today, it’s taking place in one or two years, and it’s taking place across many sectors at the same time.”

On the possibility of an AI-fueled jobs boom, Acemoglu said: “I don’t see how that could happen.”

‘In every technological revolution there is pushback’

Acemoglu’s comments wade into a significant area of ongoing debate among policymakers and economists: Whether the AI boom will trigger massive job losses as companies increasingly automate their workforce and workflows. What’s also under dispute is the velocity of AI-related disruption among US workers and which jobs are most at risk from adopting the technology.

Acemoglu is wary of opposing AI, but he recognized that previous technological disruptions were accompanied by backlashes of varying size and scope.

“I am very, very, very cautious in saying we should say no to technology. Absolutely not,” he said. “But in every technological revolution there is pushback, and that pushback takes many different forms.”

Acemoglu — who won the Nobel Prize in economics last year — was among the 200 signatories of a letter issued in July by business leaders and economists urging policymakers to be adept at designing guardrails for AI safety.

Tech giants such as Google, Meta, Amazon are spearheading the $700 billion AI buildout with a flood of spending this year on data centers and the equipment needed to power them, such as memory chips.