daron acemoglu, in massachusetts, welcome to hardtalk. massachusetts, welcome to hardtalk hardtalk. thank you, it s a deli . ht hardtalk. thank you, it s a delight to hardtalk. thank you, it s a delight to be hardtalk. thank you, it s a delight to be on hardtalk. thank you, it s a delight to be on the - hardtalk. thank you, it s a - delight to be on the programme. a great pleasure to have you here you have just written a book power and progress which goes through the impacts of some of the great technological shift in human history over the past millennium. would you say that artificial intelligence, the supremacy of the algorithm, represents one of those transformational moment for humankind? i’m transformational moment for humankind? transformational moment for humankind? ., , ., humankind? i m not sure that it does but there humankind? i m not sure that it does but there is humankind? i m not sure that it does but there is a humankind? i m not sure that it
and potentialfor great earlier. ai has great promise and potential for great damage, the generative ai and potential for great damage, the generative al or the large language models could be a new tool for augmenting what we do in knowledge work, white collar work, journalism, academia, it is not currently going in that direction because actually, gpt four and chatgpt have very impressive looking results, but deep down, they are not super useful for knowledge workers at the moment. but at the same time many of these things are already being used for centralising information further, and replacing workers that used to do simple analytical tasks such as writing tasks or summarising news and so on, that is only going to expand. it is the choice we have to make on how we will develop these technologies, and how we will use them, that is the critical one, especially when we are at the cusp of more and more investment in this generative ai. , ., investment in this generative ai. ., , inve
effects of technology and where the future will take us you have to hold two conflicting thoughts in your mind at the same time. one is that we have tremendously benefited from industrial technologies, we are healthier, more comfortable, much more prosperous than people used to be 300 years ago and there is tremendous progress that could be beneficial but conflicting with that, there are also a lot of collateral damages, that have been created on the path of so called progress. and there are many dangerous directions with which these technologies are being pushed. in with which these technologies are being pushed. are being pushed. in that direction. are being pushed. in that direction, you are being pushed. in that direction, you advise - are being pushed. in that direction, you advise us i are being pushed. in thatl direction, you advise us to think carefully about history and you talk about, for example, the late 18th and 19th century industrial revolution is, in the united kin
that were true. the - not loss of jobs. yes, i wish l that were true. the potential when you look at earlier phases of industrial growth, the three decades that followed world war ii in the uk and europe and united states, that is exactly what happened. there was rapid automation but at the same time new tasks were created for workers that notjust generated employment but actually insured inequality fell, real wages rose very rapidly. but that was a choice about institutions, as you pointed out, do we completely given to the wishes of the ceo and shareholders, and it was a very important choice about the direction of technology, the current direction of ai will not create a jobless future in the next three decades, we will not be sitting at home and playing video games, but if it goes along the same path of the previous days of technology it will boost inequality quite substantially. will boost inequality quite substantially. will boost inequality quite substantiall. ., , substantiall