What AI Will Actually Do to the Economy with Noah Smith
Founders in Arms · Immad Akhund and Rajat Suri
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Show Notes
Noah Smith is a writer and Substack blogger behind Noahpinion, known for his contrarian, data-grounded takes on economics, technology, and geopolitics.
What you'll learn:
- Why the viral Citrini "2028 Global Intelligence Crisis" post moved markets — and whether it should have
- The psychology behind why "AI causes 2008" scared Wall Street more than killer robots
- Why Noah thinks an AI-driven financial crisis is possible but unlikely
- How a productivity boom could paradoxically trigger a mild recession through "sticky prices"
- Why AI-enabled bioterrorism — not economic disruption — is Noah's biggest fear
- What Block's 4,000-person layoff and Mercury's hiring shifts reveal about AI's real impact on jobs
- Why software job losses in 2023-24 may have been driven by uncertainty, not AI capability
- Noah's take on deflation, GDP growth, and where inflation goes from here
- Why intellectual humility has been Noah's biggest edge as a forecaster
- The "dinosaur and the meteor" theory — why we're worrying about the economy while a much bigger threat flies overhead
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) The meteor meme — AI's real threat vs. the economy
(01:07) Introduction to Noah Smith
(02:14) What the Citrini post actually argued
(04:30) Why markets missed Covid — and what that tells us about AI
(06:17) Why Citrini moved markets: the power of pattern matching to 2008
(07:51) Breaking down Citrini's financial crisis domino theory
(08:38) Noah's verdict: possible but unlikely
(11:04) Block lays off 4,000 — how does AI-driven unemployment play out macro?
(17:42) How a productivity boom could cause a recession: sticky prices explained
(19:46) Noah's real AI fear: vibe-coded bioweapons
(24:55) Has bioterror surpassed China-Taiwan as Noah's top worry?
(25:10) The economy today: inflation, deflation, and GDP
(28:44) What Mercury's hiring strategy reveals about AI's effect on headcount
(31:32) Why software job losses in 2023-24 may have been forward-looking uncertainty
(34:38) The threat to blue collar jobs — are truck drivers next?
(35:52) Why intellectual humility is Noah's competitive edge
(39:26) The meteor meme closing: we created zombie gods for a 2.7% productivity boost