Stanford economist advises UN on global AI governance and then issues a statement calling for policymakers to create institutions to govern AI
A Stanford professor has organised a statement calling on policymakers and technology leaders to build policies and institutions to address the rapid rollout of AI because it will disrupt economies.
Less than a week before, his work was cited in the UNâs first global report assessing artificial intelligence capabilities, risks and impacts. A report which reads like the UN is attempting to take control of the global narrative using AI.
But thatâs not all. The professorâs institution at Stanford is a partner in projects involving human augmentation using AI and neuroscience.
Quartz published an article yesterday titled âEconomists are coming around to the idea that AI really is killing jobsâ, describing a statement released the day before by economists and researchers titled âWe Must Act Nowâ. The statement warns that AI "could bring risks, including large-scale job displacement.â
It sounds as if these researchers and economists are finally talking sense. But the title of Quartzâs article is misleading, and the statement is a front. The giveaway is in the first paragraph of Quartzâs article:
More than 200 economists and researchers, including 15 Nobel laureates, released a joint statement on Monday warning that artificial intelligence could reshape the economy at a speed and scale exceeding the Industrial Revolution, and calling on policymakers and technology leaders to begin building policies and institutions to address the disruption.
âTo begin building policies and institutionsâ is the key phrase; the rest is activism and fluffy language to say what they are doing without actually saying what they are doing. Â What the statement actually means is that policymakers and technology companies should create institutions to âgovernâ or control AI.
Itâs not coincidental that last week, on 6 July, the United Nations (âUNâ) held a âGlobal Dialogue on AI Governance.â Tim Hinchcliffe concluded that, rather than safeguarding information integrity as claimed, the UN is seeking to use AI to control the narrative globally: whatever they say goes, and everything else should be censored as misinformation or disinformation.
Read more: UN created a global disinformation task force; now itâs taking control of information through âAI governanceâ
So, we dug a little deeper into who was involved in the UNâs âGlobal Dialogueâ to see if there was a connection between the economists and researchers' statement and the UNâs agenda.
The UN Reports
In 2023, as part of the United Nations Secretary-Generalâs âRoadmap for Digital Cooperationâ, a High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence was formed âto undertake analysis and advance recommendations for the international governance of artificial intelligence.â
In September 2024, the Advisory Body released a report titled âGoverning AI for Humanityâ. This report informed the âGlobal Dialogueâ held on 6 July 2026. Erik Brynjolfssonâs work on generative AI at work and productivity was cited in the Advisory Bodyâs report. Remember Brynjolfssonâs name, as it comes up again.
A few days before the âGlobal Dialogue,â on 1 July 2026, a the UN released a report titled âPreliminary Report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AIâ (âPreliminary Reportâ). This report provides the first global âscientificâ assessment of artificial intelligence capabilities, risks and impacts.
One of the sources used in the Preliminary Report was Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI (âHAIâ), from which the report used 3 papers/articles, and another was the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, from which the report used 1 paper/article. Additionally, the report used material from the Stanford Digital Repository, which âsupports management of scholarly information resources of enduring value to Stanford University.â
Two of the Stanford entities used as sources, HAI and the Digital Economy Lab, have at least one person in common: Erik Brynjolfsson.Â
A biography for Brynjolfsson states:
Erik Brynjolfsson is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI (HAI), and Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. He also is the Ralph Landau Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Professor by Courtesy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Department of Economics, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
Conducting a search in the text of the Preliminary Report for âBrynjolfssonâ reveals that HAI and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab are not the only sources used that originate from or are affiliated with Brynjolfsson. Brynjolfssonâs name, specifically, appears 8 times in the list of sources:
- Brynjolfsson, E., & Mitchell, T. (2017). What can machine learning do? Workforce implications. Science, 358(6370), 1530â1534. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8062 - McElheran, K., Yang, M.-J., Kroff, Z., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2024). The rise of industrial AI in America: Microfoundations of the productivity J-curve(s) (NBER Working Paper No. 32937). National Bureau of Economic Research. - Brynjolfsson, E., Chandar, B., & Chen, R. (2025). Canaries in the coal mine? Six facts about the recent employment effects of artificial intelligence. Stanford Digital Economy Lab. - Brynjolfsson, E., Li, D., & Raymond, L. (2025). Generative AI at work. Quarterly Journal of Economics. - McElheran, K., Yang, M.-J., Kroff, Z., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2024). The rise of industrial AI in America: Microfoundations of the productivity J-curve(s) (NBER Working Paper No. 32937). - Brynjolfsson, E., Rock, D., & Syverson, C. (2017). Artificial intelligence and the modern productivity paradox: A clash of expectations and statistics. NBER Working Paper No. 24001 - Brynjolfsson, E., & Hitt, L. M. (2000). Beyond computation: Information technology, organisational transformation and business performance. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4), 23â48. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.14.4.2 - Brynjolfsson, E., Rock, D., & Syverson, C. (2021). The productivity J-curve: How intangibles complement general purpose technologies. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 13(1), 333-372.
We havenât followed the source references to see how the report used these materials. But Brynjolfssonâs involvement in the UNâs reports is relevant because, as Quartz noted:
The statement's significance lies partly in who signed it. Erik Brynjolfsson, a Stanford economist who helped organise the effort, said there has been "a notable change in the profession," according to The New York Times.Â
So, Brynjolfssonâs work is cited in the 2023 report to inform the UNâs âGlobal Dialogue,â it is cited again in the Preliminary Report and, a week later, a statement âcalling on policymakers and technology leaders to begin building policies and institutionsâ - organised by Brynjolfsson - is released. Coincidence?
Quartz names two others that The New York Times deemed worthy of noting:
Among those who put their names to the document are Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson - both MIT professors and 2024 Nobel economics laureates - whose earlier public scepticism about AI's disruptive potential made their participation particularly striking, according to the Times.
Like Brynjolfsson, Daron Acemogluâs work was cited in the Preliminary Report.Â
It would be interesting to check each of the "more than 200" signatories to Brynjolfssonâs statement and see how many of them have works cited in the UNâs Preliminary Report.
MIT, Stanford and the Committee of 300
MIT, which Quartz noted is where Acemoglu and Johnson hold professorships, is an acronym for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the UNâs Preliminary Report, the MIT FutureTechâs AI Risk Repository/Incident Tracker is noted as one of two âindependent AI incident databasesâ being maintained to track âhow a system behaves after release, with real users, real tasks and real environments.â
Source material was also taken from MIT for the UNâs report, namely:
- Boine, C. (2023). Emotional attachment to AI companions and European law. MIT Case Studies in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (Winter 2023). https://doi.org/10.21428/2c646de5.db67ec7f - MIT AI Risk Initiative. (2025). AI risk mitigation database and draft taxonomy. https://airisk.mit.edu/ai-riskmitigations
As with Brynjolfssonâs work, we have not followed through on these citations in the report to see what the UN was drawing from them or for what purpose. We merely want to demonstrate that MIT is among those that the UN turns to inform its decisions.
In his 1991 book âConspirators' Hierarchy: Story of the Committee of 300â, Dr. John Coleman wrote, âthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) one of the premier The Committee of 300's research-institutes.â
âThe first Club of Rome's 'global planning contract' went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),â he said.
At the end of the book Dr. Coleman lists MIT as one of the many institutions that is directly under the influence of the Committee of 300. âThis major institute is not generally recognised as being a part of Tavistock USA. Most people look upon it as a purely American institution, but that is far from being the case,â he said and noted that one of MITâs clients was the Institute for Defence Analysis (âIDAâ).
âSo vast is the reach of IDA that it would take hundreds of pages to describe the activities in which it is engaged, and IDA is fully described in my book on the role played by Institutions and Foundations in committing treason against the United States of America, which will be published early in 1992,â Dr. Coleman said.
In addition to The Committee of 300, Dr. Coleman wrote: âDiplomacy by Deceptionâ (1993), âOne World Order: Socialist Dictatorshipâ (2003), âThe Tavistock Institute of Human Relationsâ (2006) and âThe Rothschild Dynastyâ (2006). Â
The upcoming book Dr. Coleman was referring to must have been âDiplomacy by Deceptionâ which is described as âan excellent companion book to the The Committee of 300 by the same author.â The opening chapter is titled âThe Threat of the United Nationsâ.
On Sunday, we published an article focusing on the work of Stanford Research Institute (âSRIâ), which began as part of Stanford University and then formally separated from the University in 1970. In our article, we provided an excerpt from Dr. Colemanâs book.
According to Dr. Coleman, SRI is also controlled and owned by the Committee of 300, under the umbrella of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, a British non-profit headquartered in London.
Read more: Changing images of man: Who funds and controls SRI International?
Dr. Coleman provided a list summarising âthe major Tavistock institutions in the United States engaged in brainwashing at all levelsâ; MIT is among them:
Conspirators' Hierarchy: Story of the Committee of 300, Dr. John Coleman, 1991 Stanford and Human Augmentation
HAI is part of Stanford University and has no known/declared collaboration or affiliation with SRI, apart from both institutions coming under the Tavistock umbrella, according to Dr. Coleman. However, the two institutions' work seems to be along similar lines, which makes one wonder if the historical ties, being Stanford University, have been completely cut.
Speaking of an SRI project codenamed SHAKY, Dr. Coleman wrote, âThe massive electronic-brain in SHAKY was capable of carrying out many commands ⊠Twenty eight scientists worked on what is called âHuman Augmentationâ ⊠By the 1980's, 60% of SRI's contracts were devoted to âFuturismâ with both military and civilian applications.â
In comparison, Stanford HAIâs âvision for the future is led by the commitment to promote human-centred uses of AI,â its website states. âIn support of these goals, our research falls into three key focus areas: Human Impact, Augment Human Capabilities, and Intelligence.â
What do they mean by âAugment Human Capabilitiesâ?
A summary on HAIâs about page explains: âAI has the potential to replace people in their jobs. But AI also has the potential to educate, train, and augment people, making them better at their tasks and activities,â a summary of âAugment Human Capabilities.â
It sounds fairly benevolent until we scan the âMajor Milestonesâ at the bottom of HAIâs âaboutâ page.Â
In 2023, HAI partnered with Wu Tsai Centre to fund research into AI and neuroscience.
Stanford University Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence, About page
Yale Universityâs Wu Tsai Institute is dedicated to understanding human cognition and exploring human potential through interdisciplinary inquiry.
âFrom the smallest building blocks of the brain to powerful algorithms of the mind, cognition is the source of all human knowledge and endeavours. Understanding it is the moonshot that brings us together,â the Wu Tsai Institute states.
And its latest blog, dated 6 June, is titled âA brain-computer interface that works with, not against, the brainâ.
What kind of augmenting human capabilities does that sound like? Like the fluffy language of HAI trying to save peopleâs jobs kind? Or like human augmentation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution kind?
We have a right to know since Erik Brynjolfsson, a Professor and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI (âHAIâ) is informing the UN about âgoverningâ AI globally, and then nudging policymakers and technology leaders towards âbuilding policies and institutionsâ related to âgoverningâ AI.
On a personal level, Brynjolfsson is not the only one who should be investigated for conflicts of interest. He is likely to be just one member of a small group, trapped in groupthink or enjoying the financial benefits a little too much, doing the same.
Related:
- Fourth Industrial Revolution will lead to fusion of physical, digital and biological identities â Schwab (2019) - Schwabâs WEF is now pushing to implant Tracking Microchips in Humans as part of The Great Reset agenda - Kissinger speaks from the grave: To avoid AI wiping out humans, people should be biologically engineered to work better with AI - The founders of Bitcoin were transhumanists - Human Augmentation Will Be the Death of Humanity - Gene Therapy and Human Cyborgs: We Are Being Played Before We Even Know What the Playing Field Looks Like
Featured image: Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford academic and author, explains how AI and people can complement each other. Source: The Financial Times
















