Introduction

Mark Blythe talks with Aaron Benanet, an economic historian and postdoctoral researcher at Humboldt University in Berlin. Most discussions around AI and the future of work tend to go in one of two directions: either excitement for a post-work utopia or alarm over the end of work. In his new book Automation and the Future of Work he upends this debate by placing automation in a global context. He explains why manufacturing jobs are disappearing but it's almost nothing to do with robots.