Daron Acemoglu: belief

Transcript context

…Final question—but before, just your book again, What Happened to Liberal Democracy? by Daron Acemoglu, new out this year—what is it you want to learn about next? I have several big questions that I’m exploring right now. One is what we just talked about, how can we make AI, not as a regulation, but just ground up, how can you make AI more pro-worker? I think that’s just my big passion. Second, all of these questions, and actually your first question, intersect with the following issue: Where do you need talent in society? Where do you need talent, education, expertise? Is it enough to have it at the very top with the elite, the best scientists, and then it will trickle down, or do you need it everywhere in society? What makes the most radical innovations work? I think we actually don’t know the answer to that question. I suspect that it’s not as top-down as sometimes the standard histories tell, so that’s the second thing. Then the third, it’s both bridging this gap between political economy, which is half of my work and more than half of my passion, and all of these things. What’s the role of ideas? The materialist conception, which is both dominant in Marxism and all of the leftist social science and economics, leaves very little room for ideas. When you look at the real world, sometimes ideas from individuals, but also from groups, create very different dynamics. That’s the third thing that I’m passionate about. Daron Acemoglu, thank you very much.…

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