Technology and Social Change

It’s sometimes hard to believe that ChatGPT was first released to the public less than four years ago. At this point AI is everywhere. This may be the most rapid adoption of a major new technology in history. Despite AI’s ubiquity, its economic impact remains unclear. We don’t yet know what it will do to productivity, to employment, to wages or to income and wealth inequality. These are important issues, and I will be writing about them in the weeks ahead. However, it’s important to realize that the ramifications of new technologies are much more than just productivity growth. They can indeed allow the economy to produce more goods with a given amount of resources. As I explained last week , “total factor productivity” is in fact the way economists measure the rate of technological progress. But new technologies also change society by altering the nature of work, where we live, how we interact with ourselves as well as others. Indeed, technological change can have profound social impacts even when its payoff in terms of higher GDP appears modest. We know from history that the social changes caused by technological change aren’t always for the better. Sometimes technology makes society worse off in important ways. Sometimes it transforms society in ways some people find undesirable. So this week I’m going to temporarily put the strictly economic impacts of technology aside and instead talk about technology and social change. As with last week’s primer, I will look at historical episodes as a way to gain insight into possible outcomes as AI diffuses through our society. Beyond the paywall I will consider the following: 1. How mechanized agriculture made America less healthy 2. How modern manufacturing hollowed out cities 3. Contraception and women’s changing role 4. Smartphones and the rise of distraction 5. The social and psychological impacts of AIRead More