Economic AI Risks
In the context of economic AI risks two major risks dominate. These refer to the disruption of the economic system due to an increase of AI technologies and automation. For instance, a higher level of AI integration into the manufacturing industry may result in massive unemployment, leading to a loss of taxpayers and thus negatively impacting the economic system (Boyd & Wilson, 2017; Scherer, 2016). This may also be associated with the risk of losing control and knowledge of organisational processes as AI systems take over an increasing number of tasks, replacing employees in these processes.
ENTITY
3 - Other
INTENT
3 - Other
TIMING
2 - Post-deployment
Risk ID
mit297
Domain lineage
6. Socioeconomic and Environmental
6.2 > Increased inequality and decline in employment quality
Mitigation strategy
1. Implement comprehensive, subsidized workforce reskilling and upskilling programs to transition workers, particularly those in high AI-exposed occupations, into 'frontier' roles or to augment existing 'retooled' jobs with AI fluency and technical skills. 2. Establish robust social insurance and economic support frameworks, including portable benefits, worker retraining accounts, and strengthened unemployment insurance, to stabilize the financial security of displaced workers and mitigate the macroeconomic risk of a shrinking tax base and increased inequality. 3. Mandate and rigorously enforce human-in-the-loop and human-oversight protocols for all critical AI-assisted operational and decision-making processes to prevent the systemic loss of organizational control, intellectual property, and essential process knowledge.