Stiglitz: AI could cost jobs and widen inequality
Mar 8th 2026
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz warns AI is not just a productivity boost but a force that can hollow out jobs and hardwire new inequality unless governments intervene to help workers through the transition.
- AI lets firms remove labor from production and concentrate profits at the top.
- Stiglitz warns this process will increase inequality unless governments and institutions actively manage the technology.
- He says tech leaders are accelerating AI while advocating smaller government, which undermines the capacity to support displaced workers.
- Stiglitz calls for government programs to retrain and relocate workers, a view he outlined in the 2024 reissue of The Road to Freedom and a recent Fortune interview.