AI Unplugged - The Future of Work Episode 3: The Policymaker
Nov 4, 2025
In a captivating conversation, Brian Deese, former senior White House economic advisor and leader in sustainable investing, shares his insights on AI's crucial role in modern industrial policy. He discusses the challenges AI poses to the workforce and emphasizes the need for proactive regulations. Brian advocates for principled investing to drive corporate responsibility while warning about the energy demands of AI technologies. He also encourages young professionals to focus on transferable skills to navigate the evolving job landscape.
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AI Is Central To Industrial Strategy
- AI must sit at the center of any modern industrial or economic strategy because it ties directly to semiconductors and energy.
- Energy is an existential bottleneck for who wins the AI race, so powering compute determines leadership.
Impact Investing's Early Doubts
- Deval recounts debates in impact investing about the invisible hand's limits a decade ago.
- That experience shaped thinking that markets alone won't fix large social problems.
Markets Won't Solve Distributional Effects
- The pendulum swung too far toward private-sector primacy, leaving public action under-resourced.
- We must design industrial policy deliberately rather than pretend markets alone will handle AI's distributional effects.