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These pressing concerns were at the heart of MIT economics professor and Nobel laureate Daron Acemoğlu’s lecture held at the University of Zurich, where he explored the economic and societal impacts of AI-driven technological change. The evening began with a warm introduction by Ernst Fehr, Director of the UBS Center for Economics in Society and professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich.
Acemoğlu then took the stage, sharing insights from his 2023 published book Power and Progress, challenging the prevailing narratives of technological determinism. He argued that the future of AI is not preordained—it is shaped by the choices we make today.
Acemoğlu presented a series of recent technological breakthroughs which repeatedly concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few before being redirected to serve society more equitably. He countered the “productivity bandwagon” argument that advancements in technology will increase productivity and benefit the worker.
Regarding the question of when technological progress delivered shared prosperity, Acemoğlu stated: “Automation wasn’t the only thing that technology was doing, but technology was also creating new tasks,” later adding “I show that a lot of the inequality of our time in the United States can be understood as being related to how we are using machinery and how we are automating.”
Acemoğlu connected his research to the widespread excitement surrounding the economic implications of large-scale generative AI adoption, cautioning against its risks without proper safeguards and thoughtful regulation.
“Somehow, we are not getting the dividends out of technology. Why are we not getting the dividends? I think part of it is that we are not actually using technology the best way. The best way of using technology is making workers more productive,” Acemoğlu stated.
During his lecture Acemoğlu made an example by explaining that in many industries the evidence suggests that self-check-out-kiosks were what he liked to call “so-so automation”, which were hardly revolutionary and had limited productivity benefits.
Understanding automation and the ways we misuse technology is crucial; without this knowledge, it will be not possible to fully grasp the impact on wages, inequality, and the decline of shared prosperity.
Since the early days of computing, tech thinkers have envisioned technologies that would empower individuals. But they had already raised alarms about technology consolidating control within corporations—a concern that has materialized in recent years with a hand full of tech leaders playing a decisive role in shaping the direction of AI for the remaining eight billion people. “I think there is a danger that more and more people are seeing that AI advancements—even if they materialize—may end up benefiting a rather narrow segment of society, a technological elite,” Acemoğlu said.
Even though it remains unclear which path AI technology will take for society, Acemoğlu remains hopeful that redirecting AI technology is doable. Drawing a parallel with the development of the renewable energies sector, Acemoğlu offers some hopeful words on how AI needs to be properly regulated to reap the full benefits of the technology in the future, for everyone. “We should remain insistent that a redirection is feasible and should be part of the democratic conversation about what direction of AI should be”.
The lecture was followed by a dynamic Q&A session, where attendees engaged with Professor Acemoğlu on topics ranging from the role of education in an automated world to “Will AI destroy humanity?”. The discourse underscored the audience's keen interest in understanding how societies can harness technological advancements for inclusive growth.
