AI Won’t Decide the Future of Work—We Will (with David Autor)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

News, Business, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every wave of new technology has come with the same promise: productivity rises, and everyone benefits. That’s not how it usually plays out. This week, we’re resharing our conversation with MIT economist David Autor, one of the world’s leading experts on how technological change reshapes labor markets. Autor challenges the familiar story that innovation inevitably destroys good jobs, arguing instead that AI could expand human expertise and help rebuild pathways into the middle class — if the gains are broadly shared. As companies race to adopt AI and workers wonder what comes next, this episode offers a clearer way to think about the future of work: technology doesn’t determine economic outcomes. The rules we build around it do. David Autor is a labor economist and professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies how technological change and globalization affect workers. He is also co-director of the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative and the National Bureau of Economic Research Labor Studies Program. Social Media: @davidautor.bsky.social @davidautor Further reading: NOEMA - AI Could Actually Help Rebuild The Middle Class New York Times - How One Tech Skeptic Decided A.I. Might Benefit the Middle Class Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: ⁠The Pitch⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory.
0:10.6	The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked.
0:14.8	But what's the alternative?
0:16.2	Middle-out economics is the answer.
0:18.6	Because the middle class is the source of growth, not its consequence.
0:23.2	That's right.
0:28.7	This is pitchfork economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out.
0:36.9	Welcome to the show.
0:38.3	Hey, Pitchfork listeners.
0:46.3	I'm Freddie, producer at Pitchfork Economics.
0:48.3	Every new wave of technology comes with the same promise.
0:52.3	Progress will make everyone better off. But executives
0:56.3	have been bragging on earnings calls about using AI to cut jobs and shrink payrolls, as
1:01.8	if their massive campaign of layoffs is proof the future has arrived. This week, we're revisiting
1:07.7	how AI could help rebuild the middle class, a conversation with MIT labor economist David Autor,
1:13.6	who argues the real danger isn't artificial intelligence itself, but an economy that uses innovation to replace workers instead of expanding what they can do.
1:22.6	We've been here before. Technology moves fast. Workers are told to adapt and somehow most
1:28.9	of the gains end up in the bank accounts of the wealthy. But technology doesn't decide who
1:33.4	benefits. The rules of the economy do. And this conversation explains why that matters so much
1:39.5	right now.
1:50.0	So we're recording this about a month after the election, Nick, and obviously there's a lot of things for me to feel really anxious about.
1:54.5	And just one more thing.
	...

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