Alex Imas on Why Economists Might Be Getting AI Wrong
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Jill Wiesenthal.
And I'm Tracy Alloway.
Tracy, it may have changed a little bit in recent weeks or months, but I think by and large, by and large, if you talk to economists about the long-term impact of AI, particularly on jobs... By and large, it seems like they point to history. And they say there have been many technologies in the past that people thought were going to be very disruptive and destroy all kinds of jobs. And in many cases, they did. But Technologies create new jobs. We can't necessarily anticipate them beforehand what they're going to be. And AI is like kind of no different ultimately.
Yes. But then to your point, you ask like, well, what specific jobs do you have in mind? And I get that, you know, it's hard to tell. It's hard to forecast.
Only the invisible hand knows.
Right. But it's so frustrating, right? Because here's this big new technology. It's supposed to be a productivity boost. And yet no one is actually sure what new jobs it's going to create from that productivity boost.
I love him to death, but Adam Uzimek wrote a piece several weeks ago, and he was like, well, the player piano disrupted the existence of piano players. But hotels still pay money for a human who will have a piano player, an actual piano player in the lobby rather than a player piano, which is true. But, like, not many people have jobs that are equivalent. And the thing that, like, it's like, oh, you know, it's like, I want to get, like, this insurance form reimbursed or whatever, this insurance reimbursed. Like, I don't care about the human touch on that, per se. There's something very... I'm happy to have the equivalent of the player piano there.
There's something very dissatisfying about the idea that we're all just going to become like performative humans in a way. But I actually think that's kind of where we might be heading, where like the sort of social skills, I've said before, the looks maxing, the personal branding, the multitasking, I guess, like becomes more important. So the future is performative humanity.
OpenAI just spent a ton of money on TBPN. I really love those guys. They're both very good-looking guys, man. So I sort of feel like, okay, this is the biggest AI company in the world sort of making a bet on these great characters.
Buying two very nice and charismatic humans.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So maybe that is the future, just being nice and charismatic. Anyway, we need to talk more seriously about this because I don't know. I kind of feel maybe this is not just going to be like the Steam Engine or whatever. It might be very different. Maybe we won't have jobs. Maybe there will be new jobs. Anyway, someone who's been talking and thinking a lot about this and why AI might be different. We're going to be speaking. Really have the perfect guest, Alex Zimas. He is a professor of economics and applied AI at University of Chicago. Does a lot of writing on this topic. So, Alex, thank you so much for coming on OddLots.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–5:19
2
What are the historical perspectives on AI's impact on jobs?
5:19–8:01
3
Which specific jobs are most at risk from AI disruption?
8:01–15:59
4
How does AI's speed of development differentiate it from past technologies?
15:59–21:57
5
What are the implications of AI on productivity and labor market dynamics?
21:57–40:38
6
How do economists predict the future of jobs in the age of AI?
40:38–47:10
7
What is the relationship between task complexity and AI automation?
47:10–49:24
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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