Every few weeks I have the argument with someone that clearly AI will increase GDP drastically before it kills everyone. The arguments in this post are usually my first response. GDP doesn’t mean what you think it means, and we don’t actually really know how to measure economic output in the context of something like an AI takeoff, and this is important because that means you can’t use GDP as a fire alarm, even in slow takeoff scenarios.
Every few weeks I have the argument with someone that clearly AI will increase GDP drastically before it kills everyone. The arguments in this post are usually my first response. GDP doesn’t mean what you think it means, and we don’t actually really know how to measure economic output in the context of something like an AI takeoff, and this is important because that means you can’t use GDP as a fire alarm, even in slow takeoff scenarios.
I’m curious what the reference class of person you’re bumping into here is.