Technology was once a force for equality, but the rise of automation and AI-driven technologies — focused on making workers redundant and removing their work content — has, for decades, eroded the status of workers in the economy. What if AI could be redirected in order to rebuild the middle class?
Blueprint co-director David Autor discusses with NPR’s Planet Money how this could be made possible: “The good scenario is one where AI makes elite expertise cheaper and more accessible…All of a sudden, these workers [with some foundational skills] can summarize the literature, write a decent document, organize a schedule, do medical analysis, design a product, figure out a route, maybe even fly a plane.” He also speculates about the changes which would be required in the organization of our educational and technological systems in order to steer the path of technology toward “the good scenario.”