The Work of the Future: Where Will It Come From?

David Autor examines why employment persists as machines take over tasks, and where new kinds of work come from. He distinguishes technologies that replace workers’ expertise from those that complement it, tracing occupational change, labour-market polarisation and the emergence of new work.

The lecture turns to artificial intelligence and the possibility of using it to expand the range of people who can perform valuable expert tasks. Examples include writing, healthcare and elder care, alongside the risks of automation that leaves people poorly equipped to handle failures. Autor considers the roles of education, institutional choices and investment in directing technological change toward better work. His account treats the future distribution of jobs and earnings as something shaped by decisions rather than an inevitable consequence of technical capability.