AI is developing at breakneck speed.

Should we stop it? Comment “Artificial Intelligence” and we’ll send you a video on the economics of AI. On September 8, OpenAI announced that an internal AI system had produced a solution to the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem, one of mathematics’ Millennium Prize Problems. That same day, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon announced his resignation on X, warning that leading labs were racing toward self-improving systems that could become catastrophically dangerous. One story displayed AI’s growing capabilities; the other transformed those capabilities into a reason for fear. As AI grows more capable, anxiety about jobs, learning, safety, and control grows with it. But fear can also shape policy. Adam Smith gives us reason to ask who benefits from the rules proposed in response, while economists Schumpeter and Julian Simon give us reason to view today’s disruptions in a longer historical perspective.