FOX Business anchor Charles Payne discusses the market changes brought about by artificial intelligence on Make Money.
A Nobel laureate in economics has warned that constant predictions of artificial intelligence disrupting the labor market could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Robert Shiller, who shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on asset prices, wrote a guest essay on Monday in The New York Times which argued that panic over AI is not a new sociological phenomenon.
In fact, he wrote, people have been concerned that new technology might replace them since Aristotle, who envisioned a self-contained loom and lyre that could play music without someone plucking the strings.
And in the 19th century, a group of English textile workers, who later became known as the Luddites, deliberately destroyed the machines they believed had put them out of work.
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Professor Robert J. Shiller receives the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences during the award ceremony on December 10, 2013 in Stockholm, Sweden. (Pascal Le Segretin/Getty Images)
Schiller fears that similar anxieties inherent in us will rear their heads again.
He quoted a Quinnipiac poll from March, which showed that 70% of people believe that artificial intelligence will reduce the number of jobs. In addition, only 16% of Americans believe that artificial intelligence will have a positive impact on society within the next two decades. Poll by Pew Research is held in June.
“Like many others, I believe that artificial intelligence can reduce employment. But unlike most, I don’t necessarily blame the technology itself. Instead, I worry about the power of fear it generates,” Schiller wrote.
“Our brains are wired to respond to stories. Stories circulating among the population can influence people’s economic decisions,” he continued. “When millions of people make millions and millions of decisions based on negative expectations, there’s a risk that fear can actually help create reality.”
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Robert Schiller attends the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit at the Detroit Masonic Temple on October 29, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
Much of the negative media coverage surrounding artificial intelligence has focused on speculation about how it will affect jobs and the economy.
At the end of May, the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amadei, said Axios that in the next one to five years, artificial intelligence could eliminate half of the entry-level white-collar jobs and increase unemployment to 20%. He later expressed uncertainty about the exact time frame.
The current unemployment rate is 4.3%, compared to 4% at the start of President Donald Trump’s term in January 2025.
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“While the labor market has slowed for a number of reasons, there are reports that fear of an AI apocalypse is exacerbating the freeze and contributing to record low consumer sentiment,” Shiller argued.
CloudHQ data center in Ashburn, Virginia on May 31, 2026. (Lexi Critchett/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Shiller implied that tech leaders like Amodei, who promote the doom and gloom scenarios that could help their own companies realize, are partly short-sighted and need to be reined in to prevent an economic downturn.
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“Perhaps the best thing we can do is to speak directly to the Silicon Valley leaders who push these negative narratives with such force,” Schiller wrote.
He continued: “Of course, media attention highlighting how dangerously powerful your AI model is can help you sell more products, but in a recession it can be much harder to do so. Try not to forget the critical lessons of our past.”