"Reclaiming Humanity in the Age of AI" - Professor Daron Acemoglu | Atkinson Memorial Lecture 2024

The Global Priorities Institute and the Oxford Department of Economics is pleased to share the Atkinson Memorial Lecture 2024, delivered by Daron Acemoglu (MIT Economics). ​ This talk will argue that human agency - the ability of humans to make decisions that shape their lives in environments – is a fundamental value and is under two related threats: (1) the growing emphasis on a single dimension of human talents centered on analytical skills and college-level education; (2) the perspective and practice of digital technologies and AI sidelining humans. The philosophical foundations of these two threats are mutually self-reinforcing. They have together led to a pattern of growing economic gaps, status differences and political voice between college and non-college workers in the industrialized world. The next stage of AI looks set to exacerbate these trends by prioritizing AGI, excessive automation and limiting autonomous human decision-making. I will also outline how a different trajectory for technological change in AI can re-energize human agency. Recorded on 16th May 2024