Senior Economist - Effects of Transformative AI

📋 Description

• • Join a pioneering research initiative at the Center for AI Risk Management and Alignment (CARMA) as a Senior Economist, dedicated to understanding and mitigating the profound economic implications of advanced Artificial Intelligence.
• • This unique role places you at the forefront of analyzing how transformative AI systems are poised to reshape global economic paradigms, fundamentally alter incentive structures, and redistribute international power dynamics.
• • You will be instrumental in developing sophisticated economic models designed to anticipate and quantify critical risks emerging from accelerating AI capabilities.
• • These risks include, but are not limited to, widespread labor obsolescence, unprecedented economic instability, the concentration of economic and political power, severe shocks to global financial systems, and a potential degradation of living standards for large segments of the population.
• • Your research will be crucial in identifying vulnerabilities within existing and future economic systems before they escalate into widespread societal harms, contributing directly to CARMA's mission of lowering existential risks to humanity and the biosphere from transformative AI.
• • As part of CARMA's Geostrategic Dynamics team, you will collaborate with a diverse group of intellectually rigorous experts specializing in international relations, AI development, and advanced quantitative modeling.
• • This position offers a remarkable degree of intellectual autonomy, empowering you to propose, design, and lead original research projects while leveraging the interdisciplinary expertise of your colleagues.
• • Key responsibilities will involve building robust economic models that can forecast how advanced AI systems might generate novel systemic risks and vulnerabilities, moving beyond traditional economic frameworks.
• • You will construct detailed scenarios that explore potential economic disruptions stemming from rapid AI advancement, including the possibilities of severe deflationary pressures, mass labor displacement across various sectors, and extreme market concentration.
• • A significant part of your work will focus on modeling the intricate ways AI-driven productivity gains could interact with established economic structures, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities or creating entirely new forms of disruption and social stratification.
• • You will conduct in-depth analyses of potential shifts in the concentration of power, examining how this might manifest across different markets, geographical regions, and demographic groups as AI capabilities become more sophisticated and pervasive.
• • A critical objective is to identify and develop early warning indicators for economic instability, potential financial system shocks, and trends that suggest a deterioration of living standards globally.
• • You will be expected to translate complex economic risk analyses into clear, actionable insights that can be effectively communicated to a range of stakeholders, including policymakers, leaders of multilateral institutions, and other key decision-makers.
• • This role demands a proactive and self-motivated approach to research, coupled with a demonstrated passion for understanding the systemic risks posed by advanced AI.
• • You will need to possess strong critical thinking skills to rigorously evaluate competing economic theories and models when applied to unprecedented, future scenarios.
• • Familiarity with the current US and EU policy landscapes, along with a foundational understanding of international relations, will be highly beneficial for contextualizing your research and its implications.
• • The ability to think in systems, recognizing and analyzing the complex interdependencies between various economic factors and external influences, is essential for success in this role.
• • Your work will directly contribute to CARMA's broader strategic goals, which include grounding AI risk management in rigorous analysis, developing policy frameworks tailored for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), advancing technical safety approaches, and fostering global perspectives on durable AI safety solutions.
• • By providing critical support through these complementary approaches, CARMA aims to equip society with the foresight and tools necessary to manage the outsized risks associated with advanced AI before they materialize into tangible harms.
• • This is an exceptional opportunity to make a significant intellectual contribution to one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, working in a dynamic and intellectually stimulating environment.