‘We Must Act Now’: 16 Nobel Laureates Warn on AI
More than 200 economists, including 16 Nobel laureates and the chief economists of OpenAI and Anthropic, have signed a statement called We Must Act Now. The focus isn’t so much on the AI-jobs prediction but rather on the unprecedented economic transformation it may bring about—and the fact that economists, themselves notoriously skeptical, are admitting they can’t see where it’s heading.
July 13, 2026 – 5:54 pm
Image by: Xuthoria
In a stunning development, over 200 economists, 16 of whom hold Nobel prizes, have united to publish a brief statement on AI and the economy. The key takeaway: they believe AI could undergo exponential growth in the next decade, potentially disrupting the economy on par with the Industrial Revolution—but with far less time for adaptation. This could lead to significant job losses or substantial gains in living standards.
The signatories, which include tech industry heavyweights like Eric Schmidt and Reid Hoffman, along with AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, are urging economists, policymakers, and technology leaders to take immediate action and create safeguards for this potential future.
What’s remarkable is not the warning but the signatures. These esteemed economists have historically been skeptical of doomsday predictions regarding technological advancements, often noting that such changes occur more slowly than perceived. However, recent AI breakthroughs have seemingly shifted their perspectives.
Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, MIT professors who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize and had previously downplayed the AI-jobs scare, are among the signatories. While Acemoglu still doubts AI’s speed of advancement, he acknowledges that if it disrupts white-collar jobs at a similar pace as manufacturing robots, it could be "really disruptive, really costly for people’s livelihoods."
The statement is not a prediction but a confession—the economists admit they have no clear vision of what the future holds. As Tom Cunningham from research group METR puts it, “We are driving in the fog, and it is extraordinarily difficult to anticipate what will happen next.”
Anton Korinek, an economist from the University of Virginia on leave at Anthropic, adds, "Steam, electricity, and computers each gave societies decades to adapt. AI may give us only a few years."
Erik Brynjolfsson, who organized the effort, highlights the urgency: “We are flying blind into one of the most consequential periods in history.” His proposed solution? Build safeguards now to navigate this uncertain future.