Platformer – The loudest warning about AI and jobs yet – 200 economists and AI leaders say something big is happening. What should we do about it? “We Must Act Now,” a statement signed by more than 200 economists, AI researchers, and Nobel laureates. Other signers included executives from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. The statement is short. The new statement comes a month after a Wall Street Journal survey of 16 leading economists found that half said AI would lead to no net change in jobs; five said it would lead to net losses, and just three said it would lead to net growth. Notably, China last week opted not to set a numerical target for the number of urban jobs it would create in the next five years — the first time it had not set a target since the 1990s.”

See also The New Republic: “Everybody’s Weirded Out by AI—Except the People Who Foist It on Us AI makes the dumbest seem smarter, the smartest seem dumber, while dragging the entire human average down in the process. On Monday, over 200 researchers and economists, including 15 Nobel laureates, released a joint statement pleading with government and industry to address the economic and social impacts of artificial intelligence, based on the belief that AI will result in the displacement of vast stretches of the workforce. Industry itself is plowing ahead with vast investments in AI infrastructure; Meta just announced a massive expansion of a data center being built in Louisiana, raising the cost to $50 billion. However, this seems a tad optimistic, given it represents a technology that most people don’t want and no one asked for, while making our entire society collectively dumber. One of my favorite dystopian short stories is “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. Set it 2081, the story describes a government that enforces absolute equality by forcing citizens with above-average strength, intelligence, or beauty to wear debilitating handicaps. This world where the government handicaps the gifted leads to societal stagnation, where agents of the government resort to drastic measures to enforce their brand of “equality.” Today, we are seeing a similar scenario play out, but with AI. Instead of the government handicapping the most intelligent people to make them seem less intelligent, society is becoming ever more dominated by a tool that makes less intelligent people appear smarter, while still making society dumber overall. AI represents a different mechanism and means, but it achieves the same basic societal effect: intellectual and artistic stagnation and decay…”