Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu says AI and liberal democracy share the same crisis: ‘there is a tendency to escalate everything’

Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu expresses frustration with the AI debate. He argues that giving in to fear is the worst response, as advancing AI technologies show genuine progress in comprehension, coding, and scientific discoveries. Acemoglu urges people to accept both AI's capabilities and its potential negative impacts, comparing the situation to the troubled state of liberal democracy.

The escalating nature of the AI debate mirrors the deteriorating political climate, reflecting a breakdown in the ability to deliberate over trade-offs and build common ground. This mirrors the AI technology's capabilities, which vary depending on the task at hand, necessitating careful supervision. Despite differences in projected AI impacts on productivity, Acemoglu and economist Erik Brynjolfsson maintain respectful disagreement.

Acemoglu, who has studied AI since 2018, co-authored the 2024 Nobel Prize-winning work on institutions' role in prosperity. In his book, "What Happened to Liberal Democracy?", Acemoglu argues that the promise of shared prosperity once underpinning liberal democracy has broken down, leading to growing societal divides.