Economists clash on AI economics: Kulveit argues AI is not a normal technology
DavidDuvenaud · x · 2026-10-25
MIT researcher David Duvenaud boosted an exchange between economists Jan Kulveit and Ben Golub on how to do AI economics.
- Ben Golub argued the "10x new economists of AI" misdiagnose the field: many are empirical, but big new approaches require new theory
- Jan Kulveit replied that he judges such work by whether it engages interesting, important, decision-relevant questions and the magnitude of the change, avoiding "obviously false" assumptions
- Kulveit backs structurally innovative models: AI is not exactly like capital or labour — not a normal technology
- His open questions include whether to speed up or slow down "automated bundles of capital and AI" such as sovereign AI without principals
Related event: Economists Debate How AI Will Reshape Economic Research(2 posts)→
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