What is a productivity bandwagon?

A working definition from MIT Sloan

productivity bandwagon (noun)

The condition in which technological innovation is adapted to help workers, ultimately resulting in shared economic prosperity.

In 18th century Britain, technical improvements in textile production generated great wealth for factory owners, but textile workers didn’t see their incomes rise for almost 100 years.

That’s because technology generally increases productivity, but the economic benefits often accrue first to a narrow elite population and only much later to a broad base of workers, as MIT economists and Nobel laureates Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson describe in their new book, “Power and Progress.”

Today, with the implementation of artificial intelligence at a tipping point, society should aim for what Acemoglu and Johnson term the “productivity bandwagon” — where AI augments human labor without usurping jobs, and productivity growth is accompanied by shared prosperity with workers.

In a 2023 talk at MIT’s Starr Forum, Acemoglu cautioned that the productivity bandwagon is not a guaranteed outcome. “It is something that’s conditional on the nature of technology and how production is organized and the gains are shared,” he said.

Worker voice is critical to the process. Acemoglu said workers should have an opportunity to suggest productive uses for AI and also advocate for policy changes as they’re able.

Ultimately, deploying technology in a way that benefits workers is not a foregone conclusion; it’s a choice that society must make, Acemoglu said. To that point, “there is some degree of optimism in saying we can actually redirect technology,” he said.

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