Acemoglu on 60 Minutes: AI job displacement is a policy choice, not inevitable
TansuYegen · x · 2026-10-05
Economist Daron Acemoglu told CBS's 60 Minutes that AI replacing jobs is not inevitable but a policy choice about what we reward. He argues AI should be designed to help people do their jobs better, and suggests tax-code interventions that make hiring real people cheaper than layoffs.
The report also profiles data-labeling firm Mercor, a multibillion-dollar company that has assembled over 100,000 freelancers to train AI models across fields. Musician Robbie Hiser, who trains AI for Mercor, isn't worried: great songwriting will always need human life experience — "an AI never had a girlfriend break up with it." Per Pew, nearly three-fourths of Americans fear AI is coming for their jobs, and McKinsey estimates AI could force 11 million U.S. workers into new careers by 2035.
More from AGI Musings
- Dean Ball: AI research taste may self-destruct as agents mass-produce 'slop' — Afinetheorem · 2026-10-05
- AI safety researcher: AI welfare and AI safety both point toward slowing down — austinc3301 · 2026-10-05
- Redditor invokes Asimov to argue AI agency must come with non-negotiable values — Immediate-Court-4074 · 2026-10-05
- Economist Novosad: AI writing drives out human writing — we need segregated spaces — paulnovosad · 2026-10-05
- "I will refuse to review GenAI papers": Novosad on style over substance — paulnovosad · 2026-10-05
- GenAI papers echo the 1996 Sokal affair: thick on style, empty underneath — paulnovosad · 2026-10-05