Person
1 episodes · 17 quoted claims
Acemoglu says his research examines the divergence in economic fortunes among world regions since about the sixteenth century.
“why there has been a huge divergence in economic fortunes of different parts of the world since the sixteenth century or thereabouts.”
Acemoglu attributes part of the global economic divergence to European colonization shaping the institutions of other nations in different ways.
“the fact that European powers colonized the rest of the world and shaped the institutional trajectories of very different nations around the world in very diverse ways.”
Acemoglu says the main thesis of Power and Progress is that technology does, to some extent, what society wants it to do.
“The main thesis of power and progress is that technology does, to some extent, what we want it to do.”
Acemoglu says that when the book was written in 2021 and 2022, the pace of generative AI advances could not have been foreseen.
“in 2021, 2022, when you were writing, it was impossible to foresee how rapid some of the advances in generative AI would be.”
Acemoglu argues that automation takes tasks away from workers and mainly benefits capital owners.
“It takes away tasks from workers. It is beneficial to capital and capital owners, and not so much for workers in general.”
Acemoglu says early hopes for computing centred on decentralisation, with individuals doing things that IBM as a centralised organisation could not.
“many of the early hopes about computers were centered on decentralization. People could do in their garages things that IBM as a centralized organization couldn't do.”
Acemoglu characterises large language models as tools that centralise information.
“Large language models are information centralization tools.”
Acemoglu says that the big AI companies invest almost nothing in developing AI as a pro-worker tool.
“None of the big companies are pouring even a small fraction of their investment into developing AI as a pro-human, pro-worker tool.”
Acemoglu says high-quality domain-specific data for pro-worker AI won't exist without property rights in data and proper data markets.
“That data doesn't exist and it won't exist unless we have property rights in data and we have proper data markets.”
Acemoglu says productivity improvements are slower today than in the 1950s through 1970s, before digital technology.
“we're having slower productivity improvements today than we did in the fifty, sixty, seventy, those boring pre-digital days.”
Acemoglu says Silicon Valley-sympathetic economists argue the Bureau of Labor Statistics overestimates inflation, so productivity is understated.
“the Bureau of Labor Statistics is overestimating inflation.”
Acemoglu cites antibiotics as a technology whose benefits were poorly measured yet which tremendously raised life expectancy.
“Life expectancy increased tremendously with antibiotics.”
Acemoglu and Simon Johnson used the term persuasion power in Power and Progress to describe tech companies' ability to convince society their intentions are benign.
“Part of the reason why tech companies have so much power is because they have what Simon Johnson and I called in Power and Progress persuasion power.”
Acemoglu says startups are aligned with big companies because many aim to be acquired by them.
“Right now, startups are aligned with the big companies because their dream is to be bought up by the big companies.”
Acemoglu says Europe lags in AI and other tech because its regulatory system has not been conducive to innovation.
“Europe is so far behind in AI and many areas of tech because they've not been very conducive to innovation via their regulatory system.”
Acemoglu says he has worked on automation for over twenty years.
“I've been working on automation for over twenty years.”
Acemoglu says rapid AI advances in the mid-2010s made him worry about implications for wages and employment.
“when AI models started making rapid advances in the mid 2010 s, I got worried about what that would imply from this aspect of the future of work”