Simon Johnson | Technology and Inequality in the Age of AI

Date

Thursday, Jul 11, 2024

Time

10:00 am PDT

Location

Virtual

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Download the Slides
(2.6 MB)

Topics

Artificial IntelligenceGrowth & ProductivityLabor MarketsTechnology

Summary

Simon Johnson, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management and head of the Global Economics and Management group, delivered a live presentation on technology and inequality in the age of AI on July 11.

According to some, the arrival of AI will “change everything” about productivity growth, jobs, and shared prosperity. In their recent book, Power and Progress: Our Thousand Year Struggle Over Power and Prosperity, Simon Johnson and Daron Acemoglu take the long view, putting the latest (and likely future) AI developments into historical context. AI could help boost the wages and living standards of everyone, but there is a very real danger that it will primarily bring a lot more automation and further widening of income inequality.

Intellectual and policy debates swirling around AI both in the US and around the world are also part of the discussion. Can we really create “Pro-Worker AI”? What would that take?

Following his presentation, Professor Johnson answered pre-submitted questions with our host moderator, Huiyu Li, co-head of the EmergingTech Economic Research Network (EERN) and research advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

You can download the slides from the presentation and view the full recording on this page.

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