UVA Darden Professor to Help Assess AI’s Economic Impact on New Council

University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Anton Korinek has been named to a panel advising one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence companies.

Korinek, who teaches at Darden and in the Department of Economics at UVA, is among 10 economic thinkers named to the new Anthropic Economic Advisory Council, a group that will advise Anthropic on AI’s “impact on labor markets, economic growth and broader socioeconomic systems,” according to the company.

“My role as a member of the council is to provide research guidance, contributing my expertise to shape research on AI economics and labor market effects, and to offer feedback on Anthropic’s economic impact assessments to ensure they capture the full picture of AI’s economic implications,” said Korinek.

The council’s work will be relevant to the Anthropic Economic Index, which seeks to provide insight into how AI is being incorporated into work across the economy.

“As AI capabilities continue to advance, it has never been more critical to understand the opportunities and challenges this evolution presents to jobs and how we work,” the company wrote in a blog post. “The Council will provide important input on areas where we can expand our research for the Economic Index.”

Korinek, who will join economists affiliated with the University of Chicago, MIT Sloan, the Wharton School and the London School of Economics, among other institutions, is well-suited to the role, with a deep expertise on AI and its endless implications shared in top economic journals and popular media. In addition to his appointments at UVA, Korinek’s many professional affiliations include serving as a visiting fellow at The Brookings Institution and as a senior researcher at the Complexity Science Hub. In 2024, Korinek was named to the “Future Perfect 50” list by Vox for his work examining the consequences of the emerging age of AI.

Anthropic, which recently raised funds at a $61.5 billion valuation, calls itself an “AI safety and research company” building “reliable, interpretable and steerable AI systems.” Its best-known consumer product is the AI assistant Claude. Company CEO Dario Amodei recently made headlines for speculating on the potential for the widespread disappearance of entry-level white collar jobs if AI progresses in an unchecked manner.

Korinek, who is not being compensated for his role with the council in order to maintain his independence as a researcher, said society is not currently prepared for the widespread adoption and growth of AI, which he said is “on the verge of transforming our world.” He views his work with Anthropic as one aspect of his efforts to inform decision-makers about the “economic implications of what they are creating” as well as potentially “guiding their efforts to measure the impacts of AI in real-time.”

Korinek will teach a new course at UVA, “The Economics of AI: Ongoing Advances,” in the upcoming academic year.

In 2024, Darden launched the LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Business, an organization intended to accelerate UVA’s role in shaping AI’s impact on society and business.