291 - Daron Acemoglu: AI Is Destroying American Democracy

Daron Acemoglu is an Institute Professor of Economics at MIT and a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which he shared with Simon Johnson and James Robinson for research on how institutions shape prosperity. He is also the bestselling co-author of Why Nations Fail, The Narrow Corridor, and Power and Progress. In this episode, Robinson and Daron discuss the future of liberal democracy in an age of artificial intelligence. More particularly, they talk about how AI could undermine democratic institutions, whether tech billionaires have accumulated too much power, and why Daron believes current approaches to AI could produce an increasingly unequal, two-tier American society. They also discuss the importance of the 2026 elections, Zohran Mamdani, disagreements between the center and far left, and Daron’s proposal for a renewed “working-class liberalism.” Daron’s latest book is What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity (Dutton, 2026).

Daron’s Website: https://www.daronacemoglu.com

What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: https://a.co/d/0f0qGMxt

OUTLINE

00:00 What Is Liberal Democracy?

09:30 How Does AI Undermine Democracy?

18:30 Are the Tech Billionaires Out of Control?

24:50 AI Is an Existential Threat

27:18 How AI Will Turn the USA into a Two-Tier Dystopia

35:17 Other Views on AI

38:19 Why the 2026 Elections Are So Important for the Left

42:30 What Makes Mamdani a Great Politician?

45:58 The Far Left vs the Center Left: Who Should Win?

52:00 Working Class Liberalism