Economists studying AGI grew 10-30x but most frames are 'unhelpful to harmful', researcher says
jankulveit · x · 2026-10-24
Researcher jankulveit reflects on how the number of economists seriously engaging with AI grew 10-30x from a handful (Erik Brynjolfsson, Anton Korinek, Carl Shulman, etc.) a few years ago — but calls the result disappointing. He criticizes most newcomers for: not taking AGI seriously ('AI as normal technology'), producing 'merchants of cope' narratives that labs happily fund, applying stale labor/capital frames, and dismissing risks by induction from past false alarms. He attributes this partly to economists' epistemic arrogance from being the most quantitative voices in humanities circles, a status that doesn't hold against the AI safety community.
Related event: AGI economics research booms but quality disappoints insiders(2 posts)→
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