10.2 - Labor Replacement

Artificial Intelligence Policy

🧠 Think:

How do we re-organize society and the economy in light of AI-sparked labor market disruption? Or do we even need to - will the labor market take care of itself?

📖 Read:

• Frey and Osborne, 2017. “The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?”
• Frey and Osborne, 2023. “Generative Al and the Future of Work: A Reappraisal”

📺 Watch:

• CGP Grey, “Humans Need Not Apply”

🎧 Listen:

• Tyrangiel, 2026. “America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs” Podcast: Plain English with Derek Thompson.

🌐 Browse:

• Tyrangiel, 2026. “America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs” The Atlantic
• Perhaps AI won’t be as destructive to labor markets as we think?
  • Edwards, “AI could create 78 million more jobs than it eliminates by 2030” Ars Technica
  • Pethokoukis, “Another Promising Data Point on the Productivity Impact of AI” AEIdeas
• Acemoglu and Johnson, “Learning from Ricardo and Thompson: Machinery and labor in the early industrial revolution – and in the age of AI”

📚 Additional Resources:

• Stiefenhofer, 2025. “Artificial General Intelligence and the End of Human Employment: The Need to Renegotiate the Social Contract”
• Thompson, 2015. “A World Without Work”. The Atlantic
• Two additional podcasts from the Plain English podcast:
  • Mollick, 2025. “What Happens When AI Learns to Do Our Jobs”. Podcast: Plain English with Derek Thompson.
  • Korinek, 2025. “How Superintelligent AI Could Upend Work and Politics”. Podcast: Plain English with Derek Thompson.
• Books:
  • Mollick, 2024. Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. Portfolio Books.
  • Frey, 2019. The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation
  • Korinek, 2024. “Preparing for the (Non-Existent?) Future of Work” Oxford Handbook of AI Governance
• Articles
  • Lobel, 2024. “The Future of Work in the Era of AI”
  • Felten, “How will Language Modelers like ChatGPT Affect Occupations and Industries?”
  • Generative AI for Economic Research
  • Korinek, “Economic Policy Challenges for the Age of AI”
  • Gottweis et al, 2025. “Towards an AI co-scientist”. Google Research.
  • Pew Research, 2025. Workers Experience with Chatbots and their Jobs

📝 Submit:

• Discussion question to course chat

TipTip

• “📖 Read”, “🎧 Listen”, and/or “📺 Watch” items are required content for the day, and should be read/heard/watched before class on that day.
• “🌐 Browse” items should be briefly looked at but do not need to be read deeply unless you want to
• “📚 Additional Resources” do not need to be looked at; they are there to serve, if useful, as further references for your debates, final projects, and general edification later.