The 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics winner Simon Johnson, a professor at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says that giving the leaders of major technology companies broad authority to make crucial decisions about the future would be at the expense of the public interest.
In a telephone interview with Agence France-Presse, the British-American economist stressed the need for less efficient people to benefit from artificial intelligence, stressing the dangers of automating work, which is one of his favorite topics, along with the relationship between the democratic system and economic prosperity.
Simon Johnson won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, along with Turkish-American Daron Achamoglu and British-American James Robinson.
-
Your research examines the relationship between democratic institutions and economic progress, but a large portion of the population in Western countries is turning to populist movements because they feel excluded from growth. How do you explain that?
I was in France during the last elections and I am not an expert on the affairs of this country, but it seemed to me that the population, even in the prosperous areas, feels disappointed and frustrated, and has a feeling that democracy is not being implemented. The same situation prevails in the United States.
The inability to achieve results in people’s lives is a problem, which we have to solve by creating more quality jobs, and this is essential: a job in which a person’s productivity is higher, his salary is higher, his working and life conditions are better than they were before and better than his parents’ past… If a regime makes promises in this regard and does not fulfill them, I think we should expect disappointment and backlash.
The way technology is created, developed and deployed has a significant impact on the type of jobs that are created. Regarding AI, will it increase the productivity and paychecks of less efficient workers, or will it produce excessive automation and cause workers to be laid off in stores and replaced by automated machines?
-
Who benefits from artificial intelligence in this context? Are they the most educated employees?
Let’s be honest, AI is mainly useful for big tech companies. Those who run these groups are seen as the heroes of today. But I think we have to ask ourselves whether we should entrust so much power to so few people.
The vision that shapes technology is very crucial. We spoke to the highest officials in the US government and told them not to let the big players in the technology field control what is created, how it is used, and its impact on jobs, because what we will have is their vision of the future, not for our people or our society, but for their own wealth.
-
Is there therefore a need for more regulation for big tech companies?
The economic model of Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Alphabet (parent company of Google) and a few other companies is based on digital advertising, which captures users’ attention and manipulates their emotions.
It’s terrible for mental health, it’s terrible for children, and it’s terrible for democracy, because what they want to do is make you angry, and angry at other people. We have to realize that digital advertising is similar to tobacco and unhealthy diets.
I’m not suggesting it should be banned, nor do I think it would work, but it should be taxed highly. We (with Daron Acemoglu) propose imposing a very high tax on digital advertising, which generates about $200 billion in additional revenue for the United States, which is a large amount at the current stage. (…) We propose that Congress allocate a portion of these funds to mental health, including children’s mental health.
Regardless, pushing these companies to change their economic model and rely less on advertising will be beneficial to many, on several levels and on the level of democracy. We have to change the situation and return to searching for common ground.
