AI and the Future of Work: Automation or Augmentation?

Will artificial intelligence replace human workers, or will it empower them? Tech leaders and economists have long warned that AI is a “labor-replacing tool” that could automate millions of jobs. But this outcome is not inevitable. It reflects design choices, not technological fate.

This presentation challenges the automation narrative by revisiting a lesser-known vision from the history of computing. Drawing on labor economics, it examines the difference between automation (machines doing tasks for us) and augmentation (machines doing tasks with us), and argues that the future of work will be shaped by the choices of AI developers, policymakers, and users alike.

Speaker: Rob Reich, Stanford University

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