The current trajectory may lead to planetary depletion through income concentration. And this is connected to AI.

As an economist, it is no longer plausible to treat income concentration as a mere “side effect.” The data show that it lies at the very core of how the system operates — and that it is intensifying. Today, the richest 1% has captured roughly two-thirds of all wealth created since 2020. More broadly, over recent decades, this same group has appropriated a disproportionate share of new global wealth, while the poorest half has been largely left behind. Structurally, the picture is even more concentrated: the top of the distribution controls most global assets, while billions of people continue to have limited access to income, credit, and basic services. This is not an anomaly — it is a pattern. The yacht example is not rhetorical; it is illustrative. A half-million-dollar yacht (and often far more in reality) represents a decision to allocate scarce resources toward consumption with extremely low social return. The same amount could finance food, housing, or essential infrastructure for hundreds or thousands of people. And this is not an exception — it is a recurring feature of how wealth is allocated at the top. The issue, therefore, is not only inequality. It is large-scale economic irrationality. Resources are directed toward uses that do little to expand collective well-being, while basic needs remain unmet. This same logic underlies the environmental crisis: continuous accumulation requires permanent expansion of production and consumption, placing pressure on natural resources and intensifying the climate crisis. These are not separate crises — they are expressions of the same model. Given this, marginal adjustments are insufficient. The problem is structural: it requires reconfiguring the economic system itself, replacing the logic of unlimited growth with criteria of sufficiency, distribution, and sustainability. This is where artificial intelligence can — and should — play a role, not as a silver bullet, but as a tool within a broader redesign. AI can contribute along at least three critical fronts: Exposing and quantifying inequality in real time Data on income concentration already exist, but AI can go further: integrating global datasets, tracking complex financial flows, identifying tax evasion, and mapping wealth chains with far greater precision. This reduces the opacity that sustains concentration. Optimizing resource allocation If the core problem is misallocation, AI can help correct it. Intelligent systems can guide public policy, identify where social spending has the greatest impact, and simulate redistribution scenarios based on social efficiency — something currently done in a much more limited way. Reducing structural waste From logistics to production, AI can eliminate excess — unnecessary inventories, inefficient transport, redundant output. This frees up real resources that are currently dissipated, creating space for a more rational redistribution without necessarily increasing environmental pressure. However, there is an uncomfortable point: AI can also deepen the problem. If it is captured by the same structures that already concentrate wealth, it will likely increase productivity without redistribution, strengthen the market power of large corporations, and displace labor without social compensation. In other words, it may accelerate precisely the model that needs to be rethought. Therefore, the key question is not only “what can AI do,” but who controls it, for what purposes, and under what rules. If embedded within a project of structural transformation — with public governance, transparency, and a focus on collective well-being — AI can become a powerful tool to reorganize the economy on more rational and sustainable grounds. It can help replace decisions driven by short-term profit with decisions guided by social and environmental impact. Otherwise, it will be just another instrument of concentration. In the end, the contrast remains the same: sufficient resources exist. The technology exists as well. What is lacking is a reorganization of the system so that both stop financing yachts and start sustaining lives.