AI rapidly improving, could vastly boost US GDP, Anthropic’s Clark tells policymakers

Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark warned policymakers at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok about the rapidly improving capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to significantly boost the US economy. Clark cited internal company models that suggested an AI-driven increase in US GDP of nearly 50% by 2030, compared to the current level of just over $30 trillion.

He emphasized the need for international cooperation to establish serious rules for the transformative technology, noting that there was a shrinking window for policymakers to act. Clark highlighted that AI was accelerating scientific discovery and creating new industries and inventions to power such a major economic expansion. Despite the potential for great wealth, he cautioned that AI could also bring great peril, including job losses in certain fields and new threats to safety from biological and cyber weapons.

Clark, however, painted a rosy picture of a future where AI acts as a force multiplier for scientific discovery, solving complex problems in mathematics, engineering, and biology. He urged global leaders to understand the power of AI and make urgent choices about how to regulate it, as the window for imposing safeguards was rapidly closing.