What Would Adam Smith Make of AI? Azeem Azhar Builds an AI Persona to Find Out
Exponential View (Azeem Azhar) · rss · 2026-09-15
Azeem Azhar (Exponential View) explores how Adam Smith would interpret AI, building an AI persona "R Adam Smith" loaded with Smith's works and current AI debates.
- Smith's dual nature: a moral philosopher (sympathy, self-examination) and the author of The Wealth of Nations, which argued specialization and exchange create positive-sum prosperity from within society.
- Author's take: Smith would love AI as a productivity tool, distrust companies coordinating (e.g., lobbying to slow development), and worry about granting moral agency to machines.
- "Is AI the ultimate pin factory?": R Adam Smith notes the pin factory made one worker efficient at a narrow task, while AI gives one person many specialties at once — potentially enabling more people to become producers. The real test: cheaper goods, lower barriers to trades, stronger purchasing power for ordinary households.
- On Dario Amodei and peers asking governments to slow AI: "Their fears may be sincere. Sincerity does not abolish self-interest."
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