Is AI Really Taking Our Jobs? — With Noah Smith

Big Technology Podcast

Alex Kantrowitz

Technology, Religion & Spirituality, Business News, Business, Religion, Science, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Management, Marketing, Politics, News Commentary, Government, Investing, Tech News, Social Sciences, News

4.6 • 395 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Noah Smith is a star economics writer behind the “Noahpinion” blog and co-host of the Econ 102 podcast. Smith joins Big Technology to discuss whether generative AI is actually boosting productivity or still waiting for its “electricity moment.” Tune in to hear his contrarian take on the so-called AI jobs apocalypse and how businesses will need to reorganize before the gains show up in earnings. We also cover immigration crackdowns, tariff uncertainty, wage-inequality myths, and how China’s military buildup reshapes economic strategy. Hit play for a sharp, no-hype dive into AI, economics, and geopolitics.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Star economics writer Noah Smith joins us to talk about AI productivity, immigration,
0:05.7	why our politics are so silly, the state of the U.S.-China relationship, and much more.
0:11.3	That's coming up right after this.
0:13.6	Welcome to Big Technology Podcast, a show for cool-headed and nuanced conversation of the tech world and beyond.
0:20.2	Today we're joined by one of my favorite writers, Noah Smith, aka No Opinion, is here with us to talk about whether AI is actually leading to productivity, but also a lot of bigger and broader questions about the state of the U.S. and the global economy, including the U.S.-China relationship, immigration, and tariffs.
0:38.7	Great to see you, Noah. Thanks so much for joining the show.
0:40.9	Great to be here, man. Thanks for having me on.
0:43.4	It's great to have you. I definitely want to talk tariffs with you. We're going to do that
0:47.5	in a little bit, but for our audience, really the bread and butter here is artificial intelligence.
0:53.4	And a big question is, you know,
0:55.8	amid all the hype, all the bluster, is AI having any impact on productivity? And for someone,
1:02.5	you know, in your position, you've examined this, you're an economics writer. Um, I thought we
1:06.4	would just start there because we'll, we'll, uh, cover the stuff. It's definitely going to be
1:10.3	of interest to everybody.
1:11.9	And then we will go broader as we go.
1:14.4	Right.
1:14.7	So in terms of impact on the productivity statistics,
1:18.1	it's hard to tell because AI, as we know it,
1:20.3	has only been around for a couple of years.
1:22.9	And Gen.
1:23.7	AI.
1:24.3	LLMs, yeah.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 11 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Alex Kantrowitz, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Alex Kantrowitz and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.