AFP, Washington

A winner of this year’s Nobel prize in economics warned Monday that artificial intelligence offers “amazing possibilities” but should be regulated because of its job-destroying potential.

The remarks from Canadian Peter Howitt, professor emeritus at Brown University in the United States, came amid growing concerns about how AI will impact society and the labor market.

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a first-of-its-kind law regulating interactions with AI chatbots, defying a push from the White House to leave the technology unchecked.

Howitt was one of three economists honored Monday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for work on how technology drives and affects growth.

His research with fellow winner Philippe Aghion of France focused on the theory of “creative destruction” in which a new and better product enters the market, and the companies selling the older products lose out.

Howitt told a news conference that it remains to be seen who will be the leader in AI, and “we don’t know what the creative destruction effects are going to be.”

“It’s obviously a fantastic technology that has amazing possibilities. And it also obviously has an amazing potential for destroying other jobs or replacing highly skilled labor. And all I can say is that this is a conflict. It’s going to have to be regulated,” he said.