The Importance of AI in the Workplace

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The computer era actually devalued that mass expertise and massively amplified demand for elite expertise, which has been really not so great. If you're an adult and you're displaced from your manufacturing job, it's very unlikely to get a law degree or medical degree. You're going to more likely end up driving a truck, working in a restaurant,. Working in a security guard. And now it feels like maybe like just maybe we're in a new era.

For the last four decades, technology has been mostly a force for greater inequality and a shrinking middle class. But new empirical evidence suggests that the age of AI could be different. We speak to MIT's David Autor, one of the greatest labor economists in the world, who envisions a future where we use AI to make a wider array of workers much better at a whole range of jobs and help rebuild the middle class.

This episode was produced by Dave Blanchard and edited by Molly Messick. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Katherine Silva. Jess Jiang is Planet Money's acting executive producer.

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