The Agent Economy's Dark Side: Why AI Automation Could Trigger the Next Recession
For years, the mainstream conversation about AI risk was dominated by alignment theorists, existential philosophers, and competing visions of superintelligence. The risks being modeled were abstract and long-horizon. Now something has shifted. Citrini Research — a financial analysis firm, not an AI safety lab — has published a scenario in which AI-driven automation triggers a self-reinforcing economic downturn within two years. Unemployment doubles. Stock markets fall by more than a third. Not from a rogue superintelligence, but from a very ordinary feedback loop playing out across corporate spreadsheets and quarterly earnings calls. ...