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  4. December 2024
  5. The AI Dilemma: Growth versus Existential Risk

American Economic Review: Insights

ISSN 2640-205X (Print) | ISSN 2640-2068 (Online)

The AI Dilemma: Growth versus Existential Risk

  • Charles I. Jones
American Economic Review: Insights
vol. 6, no. 4, December 2024
(pp. 575–90)
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Abstract

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they may increase economic growth as AI augments our ability to innovate. On the other hand, many experts worry that these advances entail existential risk: creating a superintelligence misaligned with human values could lead to catastrophic outcomes, even possibly human extinction. This paper considers the optimal use of AI technology in the presence of these opportunities and risks. Under what conditions should we continue the rapid progress of AI, and under what conditions should we stop?

Citation

Jones, Charles I. 2024. "The AI Dilemma: Growth versus Existential Risk." American Economic Review: Insights, 6 (4): 575–90. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20230570

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D11 Consumer Economics: Theory
  • D81 Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
  • H43 Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate
  • I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
  • O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives