Laura Gilbert

"Gorgeous, but far less informative than a map would have been"

[Disability Rights UK @DisRightsUK]

🚨DR UK's Statement on the EHRC's New Code of Practice

"We are appalled at implications that an adequate workaround is trans people using Disabled toilets instead. We will not be used as a loophole in the wider erosion of trans rights."

Full statement👇
https://t.co/2eZAsJXdzV

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

I was recommended to take a look at this site: https://t.co/QpoFkpCDKZ Even as an AI specialist I struggle figuring out how to keep my children safe online, especially with the pace of change. This is a topic we parents should all engage with, share and grow together.

[Jack @jackcoder0]

Two economists just published a mathematical proof that AI will destroy the economy.

Not might. Not could. Will — if nothing changes.

The paper is called "The AI Layoff Trap." Published March 2, 2026. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Boston University. Peer reviewed. Mathematically modeled.
The conclusion is one sentence.
"At the limit, firms automate their way to boundless productivity and zero demand."

An economy that produces everything. And sells it to nobody.
Here is how you get there.
A company fires 500 workers and replaces them with AI. A competitor fires 700 to keep up. Another fires 1,000. Every company is behaving rationally. Every company is following the incentives correctly. And every company is building a trap for itself.

Because the workers who were fired were also customers.
When they lose their jobs faster than the economy can absorb them, they stop spending. Consumer demand falls. Companies respond by cutting costs — which means automating more workers — which means less spending — which means more falling demand — which means more automation.

The loop has no natural exit.
The researchers tested every proposed solution. Universal basic income. Capital income taxes. Worker equity participation. Upskilling programs. Corporate coordination agreements.
Every single one failed in the model.
The only intervention that worked: a Pigouvian automation tax — a per-task levy charged every time a company replaces a human with AI, forcing them to price in the demand they are destroying before they pull the trigger.

No government has implemented this. No major economy is seriously discussing it.
Meanwhile the numbers are already tracking the curve. 100,000 tech workers laid off in 2025. 92,000 more in the first months of 2026. Jack Dorsey fired half of Block's workforce and said publicly: "Within the next year, the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion."
Nobody is doing anything wrong. Companies are following their incentives perfectly. That is exactly the problem.

Rational behavior. At scale. Simultaneously. With no mechanism to stop it.
Two economists built the math. The math leads to one place.

Source: Falk & Tsoukalas · Wharton School + Boston University ·

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@HiraethPolitics @InstituteGC "Narrative" remains the same as when I was a civil servant- AI built to enhance humanity, to help people make better decisions, to reduce inequalities and drive better outcomes; and the societal need for people to care about what it is used for a great deal more than they do now

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

Absolute dream come true to be on the BBC talking about AI. Thank you so much to the Question Time team for the experience, this is a subject very close to ny heart.

[BBC Question Time @bbcquestiontime]

“We have seen… a genuine collapse in the job market for the younger people”

The Tony Blair Institute’s Laura Gilbert says AI causing job losses is “a real problem” and it is a “very reasonable thing” for people to be concerned about whether new jobs are being created

#bbcqt

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@PhilipProudfoot @bbcquestiontime This is a lie. QT had no direct contact with anyone else at TBI on this and approached me thru Oxford, TBI has no links with Mo or Vincent AFAIK. I first met Mo weeks ago, Julia when she was a minister, and Vincent and Darren on the show. I highly doubt your "friend" even exists

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@truluvmcr Have more imaginative nightmares.

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@postsaas We certainly must.

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@jotooleuk I was going somewhere with that TBF ;-)

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@whymeldn As in - AI must serve humanity, not concentrate power? BIG fan literally my mission in life.

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@WoodstockComp @Tom_Westgarth15 @demishassabis @matthewclifford @alexgkendall @JadeFLeung @vriparbelli @goodwin_ml @saakohl @MarcWarner10 Thank you so much - I won't lie it was very nerve wracking!!

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@DlvrDlvrDlvr I'm not a think tank, I'm a human and an engineer.

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@SaveTheNHS4U Awww. You should have much, much bigger nightmares than me.

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@GaryKThompson71 Hey me too!

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@Orileyuk1 It's not going to if you don't let it....

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@Naramsin20 Please create an "objective unbiased group" of any 5 people with significant knowledge to discuss AI. Two of them need to be politicans, the other three should have hands on experience of building it. Interested to see your picks.

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@ChelseaBridgeWh @CalDuffy1 @InstituteGC Absolutely false - by virtue of my work in the UK government and the fact the organisers had heard me speak at Oxford university.

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@micheal_olainn No.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Mo Gawdat, "Unfortunately we have taught AI to manipulate us into outsourcing human connection to the screen"

"Instead of fixing it by saying go out and find human connection, we're going to stick you more into the screen, not even to a human but to a simulation of a human - very dangerous"

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

Like to build? Go and work with https://t.co/e8T8Q5CIVn to determine the future of the country. Plus they are all solid gold superstars and lovely humans!

[Laura Gilbert @statsArePower]

@WoodstockComp @Tom_Westgarth15 @demishassabis @matthewclifford @alexgkendall @JadeFLeung @vriparbelli @goodwin_ml @saakohl @MarcWarner10 Yep that's me! I don't twitter much.