Better Offline Rot Economics with MIT's Daron Acemoglu
50 snips
Jul 24, 2024 
Daron Acemoglu, MIT economist, discusses the impact of tech on economics, generative AI's limitations, automation in customer service, future of AI, a rock and roll con, and social responsibility in tech companies.
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Creative Destruction
- Creative destruction, popularized by Daron Acemoglu, describes how new firms and technologies displace old ones in capitalist growth.
- This process, while disruptive, is essential for economic advancement, according to economist Joseph Schumpeter.
Tech Innovation Stagnation
- Ed Zitron argues that tech innovation has stagnated, focusing on "rot economies" instead of creating new jobs and markets.
- Acemoglu agrees, criticizing the tech industry's focus on socially undesirable technologies driven by ideology and business models.
Unproductive GDP Growth
- Acemoglu gives an example of unproductive GDP growth: If he spends $1,000 to hack a computer and the owner spends $2,000 to defend it, GDP increases by $3,000.
- This example highlights that GDP growth doesn't always equate to social improvement.