AI labs recruit university economists as Erik Brynjolfsson stays put

In short: Frontier AI labs are increasingly hiring academic economists, and Stanford economist Erik Brynjolfsson signaled he is very unlikely to leave academia.

What's going on

Frontier AI labs, meaning companies building the most advanced AI systems, are recruiting economists from universities. The goal is to better understand how these systems could affect jobs, pay, and the wider economy. It is similar to hiring a city planner before building a new highway, not just engineers.

This week, The New York Times “Hard Fork” spoke with Erik Brynjolfsson, an economics professor at Stanford and director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The hosts, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, asked whether he would ever leave Stanford for a role inside a major AI lab and what his “poaching price” would be.

In the segment, the hosts describe Brynjolfsson’s view as needing an extraordinary offer to move, and they jokingly float a figure “on the scale of a billion dollars.” The discussion is framed as rhetorical, not as a report of any real negotiation or an actual offer.

Economists are being pulled in for several reasons. Labs want help predicting how AI will change work and productivity, and to think through risks like job displacement and rising inequality. They also want people who can help them talk to regulators and shape rules around competition, labor, and safety.

What to watch

A key question is whether more economists will take leave from universities to work inside AI labs, or stay independent in academia. Where they work can shape what gets studied and how openly results are shared.

Source: NYTimes