AI won't unfold in society as fast as the Silicon Valley pundits think it will [Tyler Cowen]

From YouTube: 

Economist and author Tyler Cowen delivers a provocative keynote on how AI will reshape growth, work, status, and geopolitics. Mixing clear‑eyed realism with long‑run optimism, he argues that AI is both our “plan A” for avoiding fiscal crisis and a technology that will leave many people disoriented—and some high‑status winners of the old world worse off.

What’s in this video:
—Why AI will radically change jobs and status without causing mass unemployment
—Two big new job categories: running experiments and gathering data for AI
—The “human bottlenecks” that limit AI’s impact to ~2% → ~2.5% growth
—How AI could be “plan A” for stabilizing public debt and avoiding fiscal crisis
—Who gains and who loses: global poor and initiative‑takers vs. elite professionals

Cowen’s message: AI’s benefits are enormous—higher growth, longer lives, more opportunity for the poor—but they come with psychological, political, and institutional friction. If you work in or care about AI, you’re not just building products; you’re helping write the only credible plan for a sustainable and prosperous future.

Recorded live at Sana AI Summit 2026, New York, May 21st, 2026.