Will AI take all of our jobs? We don’t know.
What we do know is that smart people have repeatedly claimed throughout history that technological progress will create long-run mass unemployment, and yet that has never become become reality. In this episode, we dig into the debate over technological unemployment and the history of this concept. We conclude by providing users with a toolkit for better assessing claims about whether technological progress will cause mass unemployment.
Show Notes
CNN clip: “AI company's CEO issues warning about mass unemployment”
Dario Amodei fearmongering in Axios article: “Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath”
Other Media:
The Majority Report is warning about an AI Job Crisis
The New York Times is discussing a possible AI Job Apocalypse
Meanwhile, the Economist is saying “any jobs-pocalypse seems a long way off” and the WSJ just ran an op-ed titled “No, AI Robots Won’t Take All Our Jobs”
NYT: “Job Market Is Getting Tougher for College Graduates”
NY Fed: The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates
"A world without work: technology, automation and how we should respond" with Daniel Susskind
Wikipedia entry on “technological unemployment”
Paul Krugman on Technological Unemployment
A graph of the unemployment rate over time:
“The fear of technology-driven unemployment and its empirical base,” from the Centre for Economic Policy Research
Change in Occupational Structure, 1860 to 2015
“Hours of Work in U.S. History”, from the Economic History Association
How many workers are there in the US?
Number of unemployed workers?
7 million
How many layoffs and discharges were there in April?
Also:
5.6 million hires
3.2 million quits
Credits
Theme music by our youngest brother Tate.
Cover art by Arthur Santoro.
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