I wanted to specially note this Digitalist Papers essay by my Hoover colleague, economist (indeed, Grumpy Economist) John Cochrane; I'm somewhat more worried than he is, but I thought his perspective was interesting and worth noting. Here's the Conclusion:
As a concrete example of the kind of thinking I argue against, Daron Acemoglu writes,
We must remember that existing social and economic relations are exceedingly complex. When they are disrupted, all kinds of unforeseen consequences can follow…
We urgently need to pay greater attention to how the next wave of disruptive innovation could affect our social, democratic, and civic institutions. Getting the most out of creative destruction requires a proper balance between pro-innovation public policies and democratic input. If we leave it to tech entrepreneurs to safeguard our institutions, we risk more destruction than we bargained for….
The first paragraph is correct. But the logical implication is the converse—if relations are "complex" and consequences "unforeseen," the machinery of our political and regulatory state is incapable of doing anything about it. The second paragraph epitomizes the fuzzy thinking of passive voice. Who is this "we"? How much more "attention" can AI get than the mass of speculation in which we (this time I mean literally we) are engaged? Who does this "getting"?
