August 31, 2023
The Future of Work: Augmented, not Automated
In my first AEI report, “STEM Without Fruit,” I argued the case for the pre-eminence of noncognitive skills in a world of rapidly advancing technology. As part of that report, I cited evidence drawn from employer surveys, as well as wage and labor-share data, showing that across the economy the highest demand from employers and highest wage returns…
August 15, 2023
The Generative AI Revolution Is Underway
2023 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for artificial intelligence, with the rise of generative AI poised to transform industries and reshape workforces. The latest McKinsey Global Survey on AI confirms the increasing market penetration of tools like DALL-E and ChatGPT and outlines how workers and employers see the technology affecting work patterns in the…
June 13, 2023
Is There an AI Gender Gap?
Gender gaps are one of the defining characteristics of our age. In a wide variety of educational, social, and work settings, women increasingly out-perform men. Women attend college at higher rates and appear to be succeeding in a work environment where so-called “soft-skills” predominate. There’s one area, however, where men are stepping out ahead of women: the adoption and…
June 1, 2023
Will Chat Tech Help the Neuro-Divergent Find Their Place in Society?
The lament that digital technologies and social media are contributing to an epidemic of loneliness and conflict is ubiquitous. Whether these technologies caused or exacerbated these challenges is hard to unpack. My view is America’s sociability crisis was already advanced before Facebook, Twitter and other technology companies figured out how to monetize loneliness by providing…
February 14, 2023
Brave New Technology
In the early 1990s, I had the very good fortune to work on Capitol Hill for then-US Senator Sam Nunn (D-Georgia). As an elected official and a boss, Senator Nunn was widely known for seeking balanced perspectives on policy problems. This wasn’t a tic or the narcissism of small policy differences. He recognized that many…
February 14, 2023
Microsoft Is Getting Ready to Eat Google’s Lunch
The new Bing Chat appears to be an existential threat to Google’s search dominance. You’ve heard, endlessly, about ChatGPT, but you may not have had a chance to look at its “child” Bing Chat, a Microsoft product in its testing phase that I got access to around midnight the night before last. Think of ChatGPT as…