AI won’t be substitute for human workers, OpenAI economist says

AI’s impact on the economy has turned into a central question for central banks as a widespread displacement of workers could have significant effects on growth and inflation. Photo by SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Article content

Article content

“Just because a task is exposed to AI doesn’t mean it’s gonna substitute for that,” Chatterji said at the European Central Bank’s annual retreat in Sintra, Portugal. “We need to think a lot harder about what jobs are, how they will evolve, and that will help us give advice to people about labour-market trends rather than being optimistic or pessimistic.”

Article content

Article content

Article content

Speaking to ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane before an audience of global central bankers, Chatterji highlighted his own family history with new technology.

Article content

Article content

“My dad was an economist also in 1985 — his job was very exposed to the personal computer when he first put one in his office,” he said. “But instead of using a punch card in a big room in a mainframe computer to run regressions, now he could run them on his computer. And it was a compliment to his work over time that made him more productive.”

Article content

AI’s impact on the economy has turned into a central question for the ECB and other central banks as a widespread displacement of workers could have significant effects on growth and inflation. While researchers at the institution said this year there was no sign of job cuts yet, President Christine Lagarde says she’s extremely attentive to the issue.

Article content

Policymakers are also wondering how much the euro zone can benefit from the technology without ownership of the most advanced models. Lagarde argues that embracing it quickly can still offer many advantages to Europeans.

Article content

Earlier in the day, Lane told Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua that AI take-up can be seen “more and more” in Europe’s economy.

Article content

Article content

“Our firm surveys, our consumer surveys do see quite rapid adoption compared to previous general purpose technologies,” he said. “Now of course that is global, but Europe is many ways well placed to adopt AI. So I’m optimistic we do think it’s a positive factor for productivity, for investment, but it’s still early days.”

Article content

Article content

Chatterji stressed that early worries about job elimination due to AI have failed to materialize, citing software development as an example.

Article content

“Those jobs shrinking as AI capabilities increased — that really hasn’t happened to the same extent people were predicting,” he said.

Article content

—With assistance from Maya Thompson, Shona Ghosh and Nick Heubeck.

Article content

Article content

Article content