TED Talks Daily
I'll probably lose my job to AI. Here's why that's OK | Megan J. McArdle
27 Jun 2025
Artificial intelligence could cost many of us our careers — but that doesn’t mean we should stop its development, says journalist Megan J. McArdle. As she watches AI encroach on her own craft, she shares a fresh take on the 19th-century Luddites, who tried to destroy machines that would upend their trade. Looking back, McArdle reframes today’s fears with a poignant question: If we halt progress to protect the present, what might we be stealing from the future?For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Full Episode
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. How do we celebrate progress and innovation while also acknowledging the fear of losing one's job to, say, AI? In this talk, journalist Megan J. McArdle explores this question, sharing her deep anxiety around AI threatening her career as a writer while...
as a libertarian, also wrestling with her belief in progress and the potential of new technologies. That's coming up.
Well, I gather I'm not the only one who spends a lot of time thinking about AI these days. And by think, I mean panic. I'm not even worried about the doomsday scenarios, because I have no way to assess those. I just think about what's going to happen to jobs, because even if we solve the AI safety problem, it's still going to displace a lot of workers, maybe including me.
Twenty years ago, I decided to take my very expensive MBA and use it to become a journalist. That decision did not have what we MBAs like to call a positive expected cash flow. When I was interviewing for a job at The Economist, one of the interviewers actually just asked me, why are you doing this?
I told him, I only have so much time on this planet, and I want to spend it doing something that matters. And also, by the way, something I really, really, really love to do. I got lucky, and it worked out. Today, I'm a columnist at The Washington Post.
But every day, AI seems to get better and better at writing competent prose, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do if typing words in a row stops being a semi-profitable occupation. Now, I'm a libertarian columnist, which means I believe in progress and creative destruction. But here's something I also believe. The Luddites had a point.
Look, you don't normally hear libertarians praising Luddites, so let me explain. Today, Luddite's a broad-spectrum term for technophobes. But the real Luddites weren't your mom using a landline instead of a cell phone or sending you Hallmark cards with little words underlined. They were skilled artisans who made handcrafted textiles in an era when everyone wore lovingly handcrafted textiles.
Then mechanized mill owners started underpricing them using some of the most cutting-edge technology of their day, like spinning jennies that could spin thread at record speeds. So they decided to destroy the machines. Honestly, I have some sympathy. In fact, every time one of these companies issues a new model, I get more sympathetic.
We libertarians like to talk about the glories of freedom and progress, and they are glorious. But they are not free. Sometimes people get hurt, often lots of people. The printing press democratized knowledge and also witch burnings and wars of religion. The Industrial Revolution raised living standards and offset them with grim factory jobs, squalid urban living conditions and choking pollution.
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