Part 1/16:

The Future of AI and the Economy

The Debate Over Automation and Wages

Gus Docker: Welcome to the Future of Life Institute podcast. I'm Gus Docker, and I'm here with Anton Korinek, a professor of Economics at the University of Virginia and the economics of AI lead at the Center for the Governance of AI.

Anton Korinek: Hi, thanks for having me.

Gus: You're probably the perfect person to ask - how do automation and wages affect each other?

Anton: That's the billion-dollar question that economists have been debating for at least the past 200 years. During the Industrial Revolution, there was a big debate between the Luddites and the emerging economics profession and entrepreneurial class about whether automation is good or bad for wages.