Topic
19 facts from 3 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
16th century
Acemoglu says his research examines the divergence in economic fortunes among world regions since about the sixteenth century.
“why there has been a huge divergence in economic fortunes of different parts of the world since the sixteenth century or thereabouts.”
1950s-1970s
Acemoglu says productivity improvements are slower today than in the 1950s through 1970s, before digital technology.
“we're having slower productivity improvements today than we did in the fifty, sixty, seventy, those boring pre-digital days.”
1960s-1970s
Acemoglu says early hopes for computing centred on decentralisation, with individuals doing things that IBM as a centralised organisation could not.
“many of the early hopes about computers were centered on decentralization. People could do in their garages things that IBM as a centralized organization couldn't do.”
2010s
Acemoglu says rapid AI advances in the mid-2010s made him worry about implications for wages and employment.
“when AI models started making rapid advances in the mid 2010 s, I got worried about what that would imply from this aspect of the future of work”
2021
Acemoglu says that when the book was written in 2021 and 2022, the pace of generative AI advances could not have been foreseen.
“in 2021, 2022, when you were writing, it was impossible to foresee how rapid some of the advances in generative AI would be.”
2024
Daron Acemoglu was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2024.
“In 2024, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for this work.”
Undated
Acemoglu attributes part of the global economic divergence to European colonization shaping the institutions of other nations in different ways.
“the fact that European powers colonized the rest of the world and shaped the institutional trajectories of very different nations around the world in very diverse ways.”
Undated
Acemoglu says the main thesis of Power and Progress is that technology does, to some extent, what society wants it to do.
“The main thesis of power and progress is that technology does, to some extent, what we want it to do.”
Undated
Acemoglu argues that automation takes tasks away from workers and mainly benefits capital owners.
“It takes away tasks from workers. It is beneficial to capital and capital owners, and not so much for workers in general.”
Undated
Acemoglu characterises large language models as tools that centralise information.
“Large language models are information centralization tools.”
Undated
Acemoglu says that the big AI companies invest almost nothing in developing AI as a pro-worker tool.
“None of the big companies are pouring even a small fraction of their investment into developing AI as a pro-human, pro-worker tool.”
Undated
Acemoglu says high-quality domain-specific data for pro-worker AI won't exist without property rights in data and proper data markets.
“That data doesn't exist and it won't exist unless we have property rights in data and we have proper data markets.”
Undated
Acemoglu cites antibiotics as a technology whose benefits were poorly measured yet which tremendously raised life expectancy.
“Life expectancy increased tremendously with antibiotics.”
Undated
Acemoglu and Simon Johnson used the term persuasion power in Power and Progress to describe tech companies' ability to convince society their intentions are benign.
“Part of the reason why tech companies have so much power is because they have what Simon Johnson and I called in Power and Progress persuasion power.”
Undated
Acemoglu says startups are aligned with big companies because many aim to be acquired by them.
“Right now, startups are aligned with the big companies because their dream is to be bought up by the big companies.”
Undated
Acemoglu says he has worked on automation for over twenty years.
“I've been working on automation for over twenty years.”
Undated
Daron Acemoglu and co-authors found little change in employment or wages at the occupation or industry level from AI adoption in the US.
“Daron Acemoglu and co-authors have looked at the aggregate effects of AI adoption in the US, and they find little change at the employee or at the rather at the occupational or industry level in employment or wages.”
Undated
Acemoglu and Johnson distinguish between AI that substitutes for human labor and AI that complements it, according to Carvalho.
“They make this distinction between a kind of substituting AI technology and human complementing AI technology.”
Undated
Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu said in an MIT Technology Review interview that AI has not produced a productivity benefit.
“He was just in an interview at MIT Tech Review saying that there's not any productivity benefit from AI.”
Episodes