Billionaire investor Bill Ackman warns that AI could widen economic inequality and create new political risks if governments and businesses fail to manage the transition.
In a new interview with the FII Institute, the Pershing Square Capital CEO says modern digital platforms already allow small teams to build highly valuable companies.
While democratic access to tech tools creates enormous wealth for some entrepreneurs, Ackman says it can leave many workers behind.
“I think one of the biggest threats to the world is that today, you can build a company with relatively few people. You can access a great market on your iPhone, the App Store. And the result is that a talented individual can build a very valuable company.
There are enormous rewards for influencers, for example. But there is a very large number of people that are being left behind.”
He says the rise of AI could make things worse for society, as the technology is expected to hollow out America’s white-collar labor market.
“AI is going to be an incredibly disruptive force. It’s probably going to be more disruptive for the kind of middle white-collar worker than it will be for the plumber or the construction worker…
But what we’ve seen is we’ve seen revolutions when economic disparity gets too wide.”
Ackman believes that policymakers and business leaders must step up and focus on building an economic system in which the gains from innovation are broadly shared.
“I think every CEO has to be a participant in the discussion and in politics and occasionally stepping aside from business and running a country. I think business leaders can be very effective political leaders and we need more business people going into politics and government.”
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