How Artificial Intelligence Can Help American Workers

"How Artificial Intelligence Can Help American Workers." On Point, WBUR, NPR-Boston, 20 May 2024, rebroadcast 30 December 2024. Claire Donnelly and Jonathan Chang, producers. Meghna Chakrabarti, host. As of January 2025, available without cost here.[1] 47:40 minutes.

From WBUR's page for the show:

Labor economist David Autor’s research shows how historically, technological advances hurt the incomes of middle- and working-class Americans.

But when it comes to AI, Autor says the exact opposite could happen.

Today, On Point: How artificial intelligence can help American workers.

Guest

David Autor, professor of economics at MIT. Co-director of the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Author of a recent essay in Noema Magazine titled “AI Could Actually Help Rebuild The Middle Class.”

Also featured

Elise Azara, director of marketing for Zero Emissions Northwest in Spokane, Washington. She says AI helps her at work.

Transcript

One may not agree with his answers to note that David Autor asks important questions about the effects on workers of increasing use for AI. Listen to this interview (fast-forwarding through the Public Radio commercials) for background on such works as (preeminently) K. Vonnegut's Player Piano, The Circle as novel and THE CIRCLE (film), The Rise of the Meritocracy, 1870-2033, and READY PLAYER ONE (film).

RDE, finishing, 8Jan25