The Global Priorities Institute and the Oxford Department of Economics is pleased to share the Atkinson Memorial Lecture 2024, delivered by Daron Acemoglu (MIT Economics).
This talk will argue that human agency - the ability of humans to make decisions that shape their lives in environments - is a fundamental value and is under two related threats: (1) the growing emphasis on a single dimension of human talents centered on analytical skills and college-level education; (2) the perspective and practice of digital technologies and AI sidelining humans. The philosophical foundations of these two threats are mutually self-reinforcing. They have together led to a pattern of growing economic gaps, status differences and political voice between college and non-college workers in the industrialized world. The next stage of AI looks set to exacerbate these trends by prioritizing AGI, excessive automation and limiting autonomous human decision-making. I will also outline how a different trajectory for technological change in AI can re-energize human agency.
Recorded on 16th May 2024
28 май 2024
