Is the Productivity Increasing?

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I think the case for optimism and it, which I don't want to make too strongly is, you know, the productivity ultimately benefits it cruises to humans. The question that states primarily is not one of lack of wealth. It's one of income distribution. And if actually labor does become less scarce, at least for large groups of workers, how do we organize society in a way that people still have purpose and, and a structure that gives meaning to what they do? You want to talk about policies? Or do you think policies?

David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the future of work and the role that automation and smart machines might play in the workforce. Autor stresses the importance of Michael Polanyi's insight that many of the things we know and understand cannot be easily written down or communicated. Those kinds of tacit knowledge will be difficult for smart machines to access and use. In addition, Autor argues that fundamentally, the gains from machine productivity will accrue to humans. The conversation closes with a discussion of the distributional implications of a world with a vastly larger role for smart machines.