✨💪 The future of work in an age of AI: My chat with economist Daniel Rock

My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers in America and around the world:

Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly poised to change the workplace—the question is, by how much? Key voices in Silicon Valley warn that white-collar jobs will soon be a thing of the past, while others predict more modest economic gains as firms struggle to reorganize workflows. When it comes to the future of work and American business, contradictory forecasts can be difficult to interpret and reconcile.

Today on Faster, Please!—The Podcast, Daniel Rock and I attempt to sift through the often-confusing current AI conversation. We cover the distinction between “AI-exposed” fields and those destined for automation, explore the bottlenecks that could slow adoption among businesses, and offer a more realistic outlook for growth.

Rock is an assistant professor of operations, information, and decisions at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. There, his research dives into the economics of AI and digital technologies, as well as the future of work. His paper,The Productivity J-Curve: How Intangibles Complement General Purpose Technologies, is worth a read.

In This Episode

* The trouble with forecasting (1:40)

* The economist’s evaluation (8:09)

* The productivity J-curve (11:49)

* Exposure vs. automation (18:53)

* Growth projection (23:04)

(A lightly edited transcript of our conversation will be appear in my Week in Review issue on Saturday. Another option is using the Substack auto transcript function.)

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