The first machine age was about mechanical machines. We now live in a time of thinking machines. Erik Brynjolfsson joins Vasant Dhar in episode 18 of Brave New World to talk about the impact of AI on productivity and inequality — and to explain why he remains optimistic about the prospects for humans in the AI era.

Useful resources:
1. The Second Machine Age — Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee.
2. Erik Brynjolfsson’s website, SSRN page and Google Scholar page.
3. The coming productivity boom —  Erik Brynjolfsson and Georgios Petropoulos
4. Artificial Intelligence and the Modern Productivity Paradox — Erik Brynjolfsson, Daniel Rock & Chad Syverson.
5. The Productivity J-Curve: How Intangibles Complement General Purpose Technologies —  Erik Brynjolfsson, Daniel Rock and Chad Syverson.
6. How Should We Measure the Digital Economy? — Erik Brynjolfsson and Avinash Collis.
7. GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods in the Digital Economy — Erik Brynjolfsson, Avinash Collis, W. Erwin Diewert, Felix Eggers & Kevin J. Fox.
8. Digital Capital and Superstar Firms — Prasanna Tambe, Lorin Hitt, Daniel Rock & Erik Brynjolfsson.
9. Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work — Congressional Testimony of Erik Brynjolfsson (September 24, 2019).
10. Do Digital Platforms Reduce Moral Hazard? The Case of Uber and Taxis — Meng Liu, Erik Brynjolfsson and Jason Dowlatabadi.
11. Does Machine Translation Affect International Trade? — Erik Brynjolfsson, Xiang Hui & Meng Liu.
12. The Economics of Superstars — Sherwin Rosen.
13. General Purpose Technologies “Engines of Growth?” — Timothy F. Bresnahan & Manuel Trajtenberg.
14. Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism — Anne Case and Angus Deaton.
15. Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren — John Maynard Keynes.
16. Understanding QE in the New World — Episode 10 of Brave New World (w Paul Sheard).
17. The Nature of Intelligence — Episode 7 of Brave New World (w Yann LeCun).
18. Uplift the Unremarkables — Episode 2 of Brave New World (w Scott Galloway).