AI's Impact on the Market and the Economy

A research note from Citrini Research put forth a scenario where AI causes mass unemployment. Central to their thesis is the idea of companies reducing human labor and investing more in AI, resulting in higher unemployment and people spending less. This creates a vicious cycle of declining profitability, which causes companies to invest more in AI, leading to more unemployment and lower profits...rinse and repeat. This note got a lot of push back from the investment community, with many outright dismissing it. First, every technological revolution so far invalidates this hypothesis (every one has ultimately created new industries and jobs, resulting in more employment in the aggregate. For example, there are more people working in the US than at any point in history. Secondly, it seems highly unlikely that society would accept a permanent high unemployment rate, and that actions would be taken to mitigate this outcome. I suppose the researchers would push back and argue that this technology is different and we are in uncharted territory. In a sense, I kind of agree--as a software engineer that uses Claude Code every day, I'm genuinely impressed by it and do think it is a novel technology. But there are interactions that make it clear as day that the technology isn't even close to running the day-to-day operations of a company. Are you genuinely concerned about AI's impact on the economy and market?