David H. Autor: "Expertise, Artificial Intelligence, and the Work of the Future"

BEC Luncheon 

featuring

David H. Autor

Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor, Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow, Google Technology and Society Visiting Fellow

MIT Economics

ABOUT THE EVENT

The future of work is not a forecasting exercise --- it's a design problem. And design is badly needed because AI opens opportunities for the labor market and poses new risks to workers. This talk presents a framework for thinking about the future of work, putting human expertise at its center. Focusing on the distinction between automation and collaboration, the talk will highlight how, through intentional design choices, we can use AI as a force multiplier for human expertise.

BIO

David Autor is the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, codirector of the NBER Labor Studies Program and the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work. His scholarship explores the labor-market impacts of technological change and globalization on job polarization, skill demands, earnings levels and inequality, and electoral outcomes.

Autor has received numerous awards for both his scholarship—the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of Labor Economics, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2019, the Society for Progress Medal in 2021—and for his teaching, including the MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellowship. In 2020, Autor received the Heinz 25th Special Recognition Award from the Heinz Family Foundation for his work “transforming our understanding of how globalization and technological change are impacting jobs and earning prospects for American workers.” In 2023, Autor was selected as one of two researchers across all scientific fields a NOMIS Distinguished Scientist. Autor was one of five senior scholars selected by the Schmidt Sciences Foundation as an AI2050 Senior Fellow in 2024.

The Economist magazine labeled Autor in 2019 as “The academic voice of the American worker.” Later that same year, and with equal or greater justification, he was christened “Twerpy MIT Economist” by John Oliver of Last Week Tonight in a segment on automation and employment.

Click HERE to continue reading his impressive bio and accomplishments. 

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