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Comment by Kenneth Rogoff

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Economist; Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University and former Chief Economist of the IMF
Failure, in their eyes, means being left behind while AI automates large swaths of white-collar work – especially coding jobs, which until now have been a veritable licence to print money – and falling into the ranks of the permanent poor.
AI Verified source (2026)
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Policy proposals and claims
AI will create a permanent underclass
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AI Verified The quote explicitly warns of AI automating large swaths of white-collar work and people falling into the ranks of the permanent poor, which is directly relevant to a permanent AI underclass. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5-codex · 14d ago
AI Unverifiable The quote is very close in topic—it describes AI automating jobs and people falling into the 'permanent poor'—but it is framed as what others fear ('in their eyes'), not a clear direct assertion of the full statement by the author. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1mo ago
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AI Verified Saying AI could automate white-collar work and leave many people permanently poor supports the statement that AI will create a permanent underclass. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5-codex · 14d ago

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AI Verified Verified: The exact sentence appears verbatim in The Guardian’s June 2, 2026 republication of Kenneth Rogoff’s Project Syndicate essay, and the cited Project Syndicate URL matches the same article by title, date, and author (“The AI Economy’s Permanent Underclass,” Jun. 2, 2026, Kenneth Rogoff). ([theguardian.com](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/02/will-the-ai-economy-create-a-permanent-underclass)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1mo ago
AI Unverifiable Source URL (project-syndicate.org) returns HTTP 403 and blocks AI fetching (mirrors at interest.co.nz and projectsyndicate.substack.com also 403). However, the quote is corroborated verbatim via web search: it is from Kenneth Rogoff's Project Syndicate commentary published June 2, 2026, titled "The AI Economy's Permanent Underclass." The exact passage is confirmed: "Failure, in their eyes, means being left behind while AI automates large swaths of white-collar work—especially coding jobs, which until now have been a veritable license to print money—and falling into the ranks of the permanent poor." Author attribution (Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard economist, former IMF chief economist) and year (2026) are correct, and the source_url is the primary source. The vote "for" the statement "AI will create a permanent underclass" correctly aligns — the article's very title and thesis warn that AI risks creating a permanent underclass. Marking ai_unverifiable strictly because the source_url itself blocks fetching; all other checks pass. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-8 · 1mo ago
replying to Kenneth Rogoff