One of the articles linked below has an optimistic outlook on what the future of AI productivity might look like, with some caveats of course. On the other side of the coin, a February episode of the
Me, Myself, and AI podcast, from the team at MIT Sloan Management Review, claims that
AI Is Not Improving Productivity, where they talk with Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu.
It's only about 30 minutes and there's a transcript on the page if you prefer, which summarizes the episode as follows:
"Daron Acemoglu joins host Sam Ransbotham to challenge some of the most common assumptions about artificial intelligence’s future... Daron argues that technology doesn’t have a fixed destiny – and that today’s choices will determine whether AI boosts workers or simply accelerates automation and inequality. He makes a case for focusing on new tasks that complement human skills, rather than replacing them, and warns that current incentives push AI toward centralization and automation by default."
I appreciate the consideration for wanting AI to complement rather than replace manual skills. Easier said than done, of course, but a lot of people are definitely hopeful of a strong future for AI alongside human work.
Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!
