Daron Acemoğlu warns AI and automation could threaten democracy

Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoğlu, along with A. Arda Gitmez from Bilkent University and Mehdi Shadmehr from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has released a research paper titled ‘Automation and Repression’. The study uses mathematical modeling and game theory to examine the relationship between capital concentration and authoritarianism.

The research suggests that as artificial intelligence and robotics increasingly replace human labor, the share of national income held by capital rises while the share held by labor shrinks. This shift creates deep socioeconomic inequality. According to the model, when inequality reaches an unsustainable threshold, the risk of social unrest or rebellion among the workforce increases.

To manage the threat of rebellion, the study identifies three theoretical paths for elites and states: regulating the pace of automation to protect labor, implementing redistribution through higher taxation and social welfare, or financing political repression to maintain the status quo.