Ep. 7: How Will AI Change Labor Markets and What Can We Do About It?
Mar 5, 2024
auto_awesome
Leading economists discuss the impact of AI on labor markets, debating augmentation versus automation. They explore worker surveillance, bargaining power, and policy recommendations to manage AI's influence on employment.
AI's potential for transformative impact requires reorganization at home and work for significant benefits.
Focus on job quality and equitable benefit distribution, emphasizing re-skilling and redistributive policies for AI's evolving labor market.
Deep dives
Impact of AI on Workforce Productivity and Future Transformations
AI technology, while not replicating human thought, is immensely powerful in predictive analytics, a core underpinning of current AI affecting productivity. The slow process of adopting transformative technologies accentuates the need for home and workplace reorganization to realize significant benefits similar to the prolonged integration period seen with electricity's transformation over 40 years. AI's potential as a next general-purpose technology is seen as transformative, albeit with a gradual adoption trajectory akin to past revolutionary technologies.
AI's Influence on Job Disruption and Economic Outcomes
The fear of job displacement due to AI is prevalent, but economists emphasize focusing on job quality and distribution of benefits across the population rather than just job loss. While advancements in AI may boost productivity in certain sectors, concerns arise about equitable distribution of benefits. The potential for AI to either enhance shared prosperity or consolidate benefits among a select few underscores the critical role of re-skilling and redistributive policies in navigating the evolving labor market.
Bargaining Power Implications and Task Automation vs. Augmentation
AI's impact on wages is driven not just by productivity gains but also by shifts in bargaining power. The introduction of automation technologies like self-checkout kiosks can alter workers' bargaining power, potentially lowering wage negotiation leverage. Distinguishing between average and marginal productivity is crucial to predict how AI may reshape the labor force, with concerns about AI enhancing skills at higher income levels while automating routine tasks, affecting wage distributions.
Policy Recommendations for AI Integration and Impact Mitigation
Policymakers are urged to strategically approach AI's role in productivity enhancement without impeding innovation. Recommendations include fostering competitions for AI applications that empower lower-skilled workers, promoting human-complementary technology research to boost efficiency across sectors, and addressing surveillance concerns to safeguard workers' rights and maintain equitable bargaining power. Furthermore, targeted interventions in education and healthcare sectors could stimulate new task creation and enhance opportunities amidst AI-driven transformations.
In this episode, we are joined by leading economists Avi Goldfarb from the University of Toronto and Simon Johnson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to discuss the impacts of artificial intelligence on the workforce. They discuss their books "Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence" and "Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity," while exploring how AI could impact the jobs, productivity, and inequality. They also discuss the debate and debate the nature of work, whether "augmentation versus automation" is the right policy framework, worker surveillance and bargaining power, and what policymakers should do next.
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode