Is AI really the biggest threat when our world is guided more by human stupidity? | Nouriel Roubini

There is both hope and hype for what artificial intelligence can do for growth - if politicians can tame its destructive potential

Since returning from this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, I have been asked repeatedly for my biggest takeaways. Among the most widely discussed issues this year was artificial intelligence - especially generative AI (GenAI"). With the recent adoption of large language models (like the one powering ChatGPT), there is much hope - and hype - about what AI could do for productivity and economic growth in the future.

To address this question, we must bear in mind that our world is dominated far more by human stupidity than by AI. The proliferation of megathreats - each an element in the broader polycrisis" - confirms that our politics are too dysfunctional, and our policies too misguided, to address even the most serious and obvious risks to our future. These include climate change, which will have huge economic costs; failed states, which will make waves of climate refugees even larger; and recurrent, virulent pandemics that could be even more economically damaging than Covid-19.

The WEF zeitgeist is, in my experience, a counter-indicator of where the world is really heading. Policymakers and business leaders are there to flog their books and spew platitudes. They represent the conventional wisdom, which is often based on a rear-window view of global and macroeconomic developments.