The Next Engine of Global Growth

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Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming a productive force rather than merely a digital tool. As AI systems become more capable, they may perform larger parts of research, engineering, software development, management, analysis, design, production, and decision support. This working paper examines a central question: “How can AI and humans live alongside each other so that neither blocks the development and welfare of the other?” The paper addresses three interconnected problems: whether the development of increasingly capable AI can or should be stopped; how increasingly autonomous AI should be used while preserving human rights, agency, accountability, and control over high-impact decisions; and how humans can retain meaningful economic participation if AI becomes a major source of future economic production. The paper proposes an institutional and economic architecture based on four principles: humans remain rights-holders and economic participants; AI develops as increasingly powerful productive capacity; AI companies are economically incentivized to provide productive infrastructure broadly rather than permanently concentrating downstream production; and governments act as regulators, rights guarantors, competition authorities, and protectors of ecological and human-essential limits. A central proposal is to distinguish ownership of AI infrastructure from access to AI productive capacity. The paper argues that the economic challenge of advanced AI is not necessarily to preserve every existing job, but to ensure that people retain meaningful access to the productive capabilities created by AI. The paper also examines resource competition between AI systems and human society, proposing a protected layer of human-essential resources while allowing economic competition above those thresholds. Additional failure scenarios include AI concentration, AI-versus-AI competition, regulatory circumvention, government misuse, unequal access to AI capabilities, human misuse of AI, highly autonomous AI systems, ecological damage, and the possibility that the underlying assumptions of the framework prove incorrect. This paper is deliberately incomplete. It is presented as a Working Paper and Research Proposal intended to stimulate criticism, empirical research, economic modelling, legal analysis, and further development. The central claim is that humanity should not attempt to stop the development of productive AI. Instead, institutions should be designed so that increasing AI capability expands human economic participation while remaining bounded by human rights, ecological limits, and accountable governance. Version 1.0 — September 2026Status: Working Paper / Research Proposal