Tyler Cowen

Economist, George Mason University

Portrait painted after an image by Tyler Cowen · CC BY-SA 3.0

About

Tyler Cowen is an American economist, the Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University and chairman of its Mercatus Center. He took his PhD at Harvard under Thomas Schelling, and since 2003 has written the blog Marginal Revolution with Alex Tabarrok, one of the most widely read economics sites. His books range from The Great Stagnation (2011), on why American growth slowed, and Average Is Over (2013), on work in an age of intelligent machines, to Stubborn Attachments (2018) and Talent (2022, with Daniel Gross). He hosts the podcast Conversations with Tyler and in 2018 founded Emergent Ventures, a fast-grants program for unusual young talent. In 2023 he published GOAT, which he calls a 'generative book', released with an AI that readers can question.

Key Contributions

Co-founded Marginal Revolution with Alex Tabarrok in 2003, writing near-daily for two decades on economics, culture and technology
Wrote The Great Stagnation (2011), which argued that American growth had slowed after the easy gains of the twentieth century were used up
Wrote Average Is Over (2013), on a labor market sorted by who works well alongside intelligent machines
Hosts Conversations with Tyler and founded Emergent Ventures (2018), fast grants for unusual young talent
Published GOAT (2023), a 'generative book' on the greatest economist, released with an AI readers can question

Close Listening

Learning on the JobEverything turns on whether AIs can learn on the job. Tyler Cowen turns the tables on Dwarkesh Patel, from wild history and the Hugging Face attack to sentience, timelines, and a closing disagreement about 2035.Tyler Cowen and Dwarkesh Patel Predict the Future | Interesting Times

Videos & Interviews

Close Listening

Tyler Cowen and Dwarkesh Patel Predict the Future | Interesting Times

Tyler Cowen, guest-hosting the Times's Interesting Times, turns the tables on the podcaster he once gave a grant to start. Patel explains why the Hugging Face attack worried San Francisco, why the people who resigned from the labs were right to, and why any model a lab uses internally should also be released. He admits a touch of his own AI psychosis: it is not obvious to him that the models are not sentient. Then the two square off on the future. Patel expects automated knowledge workers and robots within five to ten years; Cowen answers "absolutely not," not even by 2045, because government, universities and clinical trials move slowly and the centaur of human and machine will persist for decades.

View Details

Connections

Dwarkesh Patel

Influenced

Host, Dwarkesh Podcast

Patel says it outright: his podcast 'was heavily inspired by you,' by Cowen's habit of asking the questions he himself wants answered, and Cowen was about his third guest when Patel was a college sophomore. Cowen had also given him an early grant to get the show started. The method carried over: when Cowen praised the depth of his preparation, Patel answered 'I learned from the master,' which is why Patel's interviews with lab founders read like Conversations with Tyler pointed at AI.

youtube.com · marginalrevolution.com

Dwarkesh Patel

In conversation

Host, Dwarkesh Podcast

They have talked on record from the start: Cowen was an early guest on The Lunar Society in 2022, telling Patel that podcasts exist 'to anaesthetize people,' and in October 2026 he turned the tables as guest host of Interesting Times, a conversation on this site. It ends on the cleanest disagreement about AI and the economy anywhere: Patel expects automated knowledge workers within five to ten years; Cowen says 'absolutely not,' not even by 2045, because 'the Centaur model will persist for decades.'

youtube.com · marginalrevolution.com