We are delighted to congratulate Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson on being awarded the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognized their outstanding work on how institutions are formed and their critical role in shaping prosperity.

We are especially proud to note that Professor Daron Acemoglu, gave a lecture in our DigHum Lecture Series on February 13, 2024. In his lecture, “Can we have pro-human AI?”, Professor Acemoglu discussed how generative AI can be a force for good or evil, depending on the choices we make as a society.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all three laureates for their immense contributions to economic sciences, which continue to influence both academic research and global policy.

Video

Abstract

This talk argues that advances in generative AI are compatible with a pro-human direction of future technology. This means, in particular, production technologies that increase the contribution of workers to productivity, and communication technologies that boost human agency and democratic participation. However, we are currently on a path leading in the opposite direction—anti-worker production technologies and anti-democratic communication technologies. This is both because of distorted incentives and priorities within the tech industry and also because of some of the architectural features of leading generative AI models. The talk concludes with some policy suggestions to help engineer a course correction towards pro-human AI.

Slides

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