{"id":56735,"date":"2026-05-31T11:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/56735\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T11:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:24:11","slug":"dr-daniel-sutter-the-ai-economy-still-depends-on-human-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/56735\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Daniel Sutter: The AI economy still depends on human nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Artificial Intelligence<\/a> (AI) liberate or enslave humanity?\u00a0 As an economist with zero technical expertise, I will not venture a guess.\u00a0 But some economic fundamentals offer some perspective on the AI economy.<\/p>\n

AI will significantly transform the labor market. \u00a0The potential jobs apocalypse is not my topic today.\u00a0 Many cognitive jobs will surely be automated, as physical tasks have been for decades.\u00a0 Until AI, only humans trained in the field could answer law or accounting questions.\u00a0 We will need fewer lawyers and accountants, but we will still need some.<\/p>\n

But AI will not abolish scarcity.\u00a0 Indeed, data centers need enormous amounts of electricity, both of which will need materials. \u00a0AI will not make everything free.<\/p>\n

Tech gurus often overlook the subjectivity of economic value.\u00a0 Goods and services are valuable because people exchange valuable things for them.\u00a0 Value arises from our personal and varying preferences.\u00a0 Something can be worth millions to one person and nothing to another.<\/p>\n

No one must justify their expenditure to others in a market economy.\u00a0 And firms seek to deliver the goods and services customers want, whatever they might be.<\/p>\n

Subjective preferences will likely slow or limit the dissemination of AI-enhanced products.\u00a0 To take one example, consider novels, poems, and travel stories.\u00a0 Do you wish to read AI generated novels or travelogs?\u00a0 Perhaps.\u00a0 Yet many readers value the encapsulated human perspective on life as opposed to the string of words.<\/p>\n

An important source of value creation in the AI economy consequently should be guaranteeing human experiences. \u00a0A publisher catering to readers wanting books written by humans must exclude AI-generated content.<\/p>\n

Subjective value will also impact AI-enhanced services.\u00a0 AI will be able to provide legal advice and medical diagnoses comparable to humans.\u00a0 Tech experts may view AI services as equivalent to human services, but value arises from the human users.\u00a0 Some people will want a human doctor or lawyer, perhaps assisted by AI.<\/p>\n

I will not speculate on the size and extent of the human-focused market.\u00a0 Subjective preferences need not exhibit logical consistency.<\/p>\n

Another challenge to AI adoption involves alignment of products with users\u2019 values.\u00a0 AI learns to write poems or solve problems through random trials which are scored using metrics.\u00a0 Through billions of repetitions, AI learns how to form words into a high scoring \u201cpoem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scores embody values. \u00a0Sometimes everyone will agree on scores, like the outcome of a game.\u00a0 But differing preferences or values lead to diverging evaluations of outputs.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s AI image generator illustrates the issue.\u00a0 The training clearly prioritized diversity over historical accuracy.\u00a0 Some conservatives recognize the potential for embedding woke, progressive values in AI. \u00a0President Trump\u2019s AI executive orders have voiced concern about this.<\/p>\n

A related issue involves the consumer of AI expertise.\u00a0 We might presume that the user is the consumer.\u00a0 But critics observe how users and their information are the product marketed by Facebook, Instagram, and Google to their paying customers.<\/p>\n

The users of free AI may well be the product, but users pay for job replacing AI tools.\u00a0 This suggests greater alignment between user preferences and the company\u2019s product.<\/p>\n

But the alignment may not be perfect.\u00a0 Both Open AI and Anthropic products reportedly try to keep users from turning them off.\u00a0 If true, this cannot align with customers\u2019 interests.\u00a0 No trucking company wants trucks that they cannot turn off when parked.<\/p>\n

Beyond these trust issues are fears of malign, powerful AI controlling everyone. \u00a0Whether justified or not, such fears will lead some to avoid AI. \u00a0Earning and keeping users\u2019 trust should be crucial for AI companies.<\/p>\n

I do not fear people or businesses delegating their autonomy and thinking to AI.\u00a0 This is already possible (to outside consultants, astrologers, etc.).\u00a0 Provided that we maintain a free human society, people and businesses will remain free to decide for themselves how to use AI.<\/p>\n

Colleges could have automated lectures forty years ago through video recording.\u00a0 Yet student and parent preferences kept this from happening.\u00a0 If AI serves us, human values will still shape our market economy.<\/p>\n

Daniel Sutter is the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics at Troy University. The opinions expressed in this column are the author\u2019s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Troy University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) liberate or enslave humanity?\u00a0 As an economist with zero technical expertise, I will not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,512,1984,980,33040,3337,5219,134,16801],"class_list":["post-56735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-automation","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-human-values","tag-labor-market","tag-scarcity","tag-technology","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}