Simon Johnson

speaker

239 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 19 Jul

Simon Johnson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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The Rest Is Money · 297. How do we reshape our workforce in the AI era? · 19 Jul 2026 podcast

Maybe I worry about that a bit too much, but I'm not a big AI user right now.

That's right.

We're all in competition in different ways.

Competition is a good thing.

I have a question to you.

Did you use AI to write your AI-themed thriller?

No, of course not.

Well, first of all, these are great questions.

Let me try to unpack it a little bit.

So I think this augmentation versus replacement is not exactly the right way to think about it because any technology that replaces people will also augment the ones left behind.

So think about the arrival of weaving machines in Manchester in the early 1800s.

Now that knocked out a lot of people from hand loom weaving.

So there was massive displacement and a lot of poverty followed.

But the people who remained behind in the factories, or maybe we just say the managers in the factories, had their human capabilities massively advanced by these machines.

So I think actually, Robert, the key is much more new task creation.

which is exactly what Demis Hassabis represents to me.

If you can use AI to crack problems that humans have faced forever and problems that were previously seen as insurmountable, and if from that you can build new products and services that you can sell to the world, then you're on a winner because you're gonna increase the demand for human expertise.

The alternative is that you will hollow out the labor force.

You'll de-skill it.

A few people will be augmented and they'll do very well.

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