The boom in AI will not deliver more jobs but will mean higher utility bills for consumers, top economists have warned.

Experts polled by the World Economic Forum overwhelmingly expect AI adoption to rise and result in meaningful productivity gains.

But the survey of chief economists across the public and private sectors casts doubt on the wider public benefit of the technology.

The findings will do little to quell a growing backlash – notably in the US – against the building of vast data centres to process AI computations.

Many critics worry the technology will kill jobs and consumers will be adversely affected by the huge electricity and water requirements of data centres.

According to the survey, 78 per cent of experts believe data centre investment will drive a big share of global growth. But 79 per cent expect ‘pushback’ from local communities.

The report comes amid growing concerns over AI and regulation.

US President Donald Trump has dismissed AI worst case scenario predictions as ‘a hoax’ but calls for regulation are growing louder.

Tech bosses are trying to take the lead to prevent intervention and even joining forces.

For example, Alphabet is working with Anthropic and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, to allay concerns.

Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI, a division of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which are usually bitter rivals, are even advocating stricter safety checks and a pause in the development of new systems.

Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s chief executive, declared: ‘We Must Pace the Frontier.’

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, boss of Instagram and WhatsApp owner Meta, and Jensen Huang, chief executive of semiconductor giant Nvidia, claim that AI firms ‘face significant liability’ if their products cause damage.

Huang was one of the biggest industry figures at the King’s summit. But some analysts are saying that the calls for a pause are not principally motivated by the desire to avert catastrophic harms.

Chinese AI players are reported to be only months behind Anthropic and OpenAI in the evolution of their systems.

One analyst said that tougher guardrails risk enabling the Chinese to pull ahead of the US at a time when Beijing and Washington are battling for AI supremacy. A pause would allow the fuss to die down, allowing Anthropic and the rest to proceed largely as before.