This week, the renowned economist, together with Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, received the highest honour in his field – the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Looking back, his presentation at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute Trend Day takes on special significance as it highlighted key topics from his award-winning research.
The Turkish-American economist, who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, emphasised the key role that institutions play in economic success and social prosperity. Under the title "Redesigning AI", Acemoglu outlined the challenges and redesign potential of generative AI. His focus was on a pro-human orientation of AI that focuses on social improvements and individual support.
The challenges posed by generative AI
In his presentation, Acemoglu pointed out the risks of generative AI for social cohesion and equality and identified four key problem areas:
- Excessive automation: AI is often designed to replace rather than supplement human skills, which limits the benefits to society and can increase income inequality.
- Loss of a variety of information: The dependence on large language models encourages "herd behaviour", which inhibits the variety of new content and jeopardises the democratic formation of opinions.
- Human-AI misunderstandings: When AI and human cognition do not align, this can result in misinterpretations, especially in sensitive areas such as medicine and police work.
- Monopolised control of information: Acemoglu warned that if only a few people control AI and the flow of information, this could result in the abuse of power and targeted disinformation.
Proposals for the reorientation of generative AI
Acemoglu proposed the following measures in order to facilitate improvement:
- Human supplementation instead of automation: AI should create new duties that support people and improve their skills.
- Tax incentives and subsidies: Companies should receive tax incentives to develop job-creating AI and promote complementary technologies.
- Data ownership and markets: Fairer structures could reduce the dominance of large companies.
- Digital advertising tax and new business models: An advertising tax could promote alternatives to models involving data monopolies.
- New regulations: Proactive regulations should ensure that AI supports human decisions and that the variety of information is preserved.
Setting the course today
Acemoglu believes that AI development must not be left to the market alone. Only through targeted intervention by politicians and society can generative AI become an instrument that improves human capabilities, ensures the variety of information available and reduces social inequality.
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