Hundreds of economists say ‘we must act now’ on AI’s economic impact and job displacement risks
More than 200 economists and AI researchers signed the four-sentence letter, warning of large-scale job displacement and urging guardrails.
- On Monday, July 13, 2026, the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and over 200 economists and AI researchers, including 16 Nobel laureates, released an open letter titled "We Must Act Now" urging immediate policy action to address AI's economic transformation.
- The statement warns that AI could drive an economic transformation larger than the Industrial Revolution but unfolding over a "vastly shorter" time frame, creating risks of large-scale job displacement that current institutions are ill-equipped to manage.
- Signatories including executives from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI argue policymakers must create incentives and guardrails to steer AI toward complementing human labor, while METR researcher Tom Cunningham cautioned that economists are "driving in the fog."
- Reports cite 50,000 job losses in 2025, while 99 percent of executives surveyed expect headcount reductions in the next two years, prompting experts to urge democratic choices rather than letting market forces alone dictate outcomes.
- Anton Korinek, professor at the University of Virginia, warned that previous technological revolutions gave societies decades to adapt, but AI offers only a few years, meaning "waiting for certainty means arriving too late" to build necessary institutions.
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105 Articles
Why I didn't sign the "We Must Act Now" statement (yet)
“We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.” — the Politician’s FallacyThe other day, a friend asked me to add my signature to a statement called “We Must Act Now: A Statement on AI’s Transformation of the Economy”. A bunch of economists, including many famous and influential ones, have been signing it. Here’s the text of the statement:AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years.This could drive an unpr…
Nobel Prize winners, former Google CEO sound alarm on AI
An Open letter signed by over 200 prominent economists and tech leaders including 16 Nobel laureates, ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and investor Vinod Khosla issued a warning about artificial intelligence and its potential for issues like large-scale job displacement. “AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years,” reads the letter organised by Stanford University’s…
More than 200 economists and AI researchers warn in an open letter: the economy must now prepare for the consequences of increasingly efficient AI - the time for adaptation is scarce.
The statement on the potential impact of artificial intelligence technology (AI) was signed by prestigious economists, along with IT and some directors of technology companies, including Anthropic, Google and OpenAI, reports Associated Press. "AI could become more radical in the next 10 years, it is shown in the letter written by the laboratory for ...
Leading scientists are concerned about the possible economic consequences of artificial intelligence. It is remarkable who signed the call – and what the data on the labour market actually show.
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