The Government's Last Chance to Control the AI Economy - Richard Murphy

17th January 2026

AI is happening. We are not going to stop it, and we shouldn't pretend we can.

But we can manage the economy that AI will reshape. And we must.

In this video, I explain what it means to manage the AI economy through regulation that makes AI pay its full resource costs and through an investment-led programme to cut inflation structurally while creating the jobs AI cannot replace, most especially in energy, housing, skills, transport, and care.

This is not about surrendering to market forces. It is all about the government staying in charge.

00:00 - Why AI Is an Economic Risk
01:18 – Inflation, Unemployment and False Promises
02:36 – Why AI Is Not Creating New Value
03:58 – Energy, Water and IT Price Inflation
05:16 – The Failure of Orthodox Economics
06:34 – The False Choice: Inflation or Employment
07:52 – Why Interest Rates and Austerity Will Fail
09:10 – Regulating AI at the Source
10:28 – Making AI Pay Its Real Costs
11:42 – Learning from Past Job Transitions
12:58 – Cutting Inflation Through Real Investment
14:14 – Energy, Housing and Infrastructure Resilience
15:36 – Skills, Care and the Jobs AI Can't Replace
16:52 – A Politics of Care for the AI Age

TRANSCRIPT
A transcript for this video is available at: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk