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In the 40-plus years since he made that observation the transistor count of computer processors has climbed from 2,300 to more than four billion, and with each doubling comes a leap in the sophistication of the logic the chip can handle. The exponential rise in the capabilities of computer chips was famously noted by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who spotted that the number of transistors packed into a chip doubles about every 18 months. So what makes today different? For Brynjolfsson it is the pace at which digital technologies grow in power, together with signs that computers are already diminishing the role of human labour. But the advent of the power loom or steam engine didn’t permanently rob men of labour. New technology has upended industries for millennia. A world where the rising tide of technology doesn’t lift all boats, but sucks under all but the biggest ships.īrynjolfsson is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-author of The Second Machine Age, a book that asks what jobs will be left once software has perfected the art of driving cars, translating speech and other tasks once considered the domain of humans.ĭystopia is only one outcome foreseen by Brynjolfsson, but why does he even think it’s a possibility? Or perhaps more accurately, a nightmare.Ī vision of a world where computers entrench the power of a wealthy elite and push the majority into poverty. TechRepublic spoke to MIT economist Erik Brynjolfsson on changing the course of the future.Įrik Brynjolfsson has a dream of the future.
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Why AI could destroy more jobs than it creates, and how to save themĪutomation may be destroying jobs faster than it's creating new ones, but all hope isn't lost.
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