An Unprecedented Consensus
On July 13, a group of 16 Nobel laureates and more than 200 leading economists and AI researchers released a statement titled "We Must Act Now: A Statement on AI's Transformation of the Economy," calling for urgent preparation for what they describe as an economic shift potentially larger than the Industrial Revolution.
Organized by Stanford University's Digital Economy Lab, the signatories include MIT's Daron Acemoglu, NYU's Michael Spence, and Anton Korinek of the University of Virginia (currently on leave at Anthropic), alongside more than 200 researchers from leading universities and AI labs worldwide.
"AI capabilities are advancing far faster than our understanding of the economic implications. In that gap lie the greatest opportunities and risks of our era," said Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
A Radically Different Timeline
The core argument of the statement is that previous transformative technologies — steam, electricity, computers — gave societies decades to adapt. AI may give only years.
"Steam, electricity, and computers each gave societies decades to adapt; AI may give us only a few years," said Anton Korinek. "We cannot improvise our strategy and institutions in the middle of the transformation; waiting for certainty means arriving too late."
The letter warns that AI "may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years" and could drive an economic transformation that reshapes labor markets, wealth distribution, and global competitiveness at unprecedented speed.
Notable Signatories and Their Stances
The breadth of consensus is itself the story. Sixteen Nobel laureates spanning different schools of economic thought signed together — a rare moment of unity. Daron Acemoglu stressed redirecting AI "so that its risks are minimized and it can work for the benefit of workers and society." Michael Spence called for an "all hands on deck" approach, given the uncertainty about the magnitude and timing of AI's impacts.
Notably, the letter was not merely a warning but a call to action: the signatories urged policymakers to deepen research on AI's economic impacts, design labor transition policies, and build new institutions capable of adapting to rapid technological change.
"Whether rapidly advancing AI broadly elevates global living standards or severely concentrates wealth is not predetermined," said Ajay Agrawal of the University of Toronto. "It depends on how we choose to re-architect our political and economic systems today."
The full statement and current list of signatories is available at wemustactnow.ai.
