Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
AI has the potential to fuel historic levels of wealth concentration, leaving workers behind while a handful of companies profit. Or we can choose policies that steer us toward shared prosperity. The future is still up to us.
Simon Johnson, MIT professor and co-author of Power and Progress, challenges the prevailing narrative that AI must inevitably replace workers. He argues that the future of AI depends on deliberate choices—whether it becomes a tool for worker empowerment or a mechanism for corporate consolidation. Johnson traces historical patterns of technological transformation, explaining how past industrial revolutions created new jobs alongside automation. He warns that without intervention from policymakers, business leaders, and society, AI could concentrate wealth and decision-making power in the hands of a small elite. His vision for “pro-worker AI” calls for strategic investments, regulations, and policies that ensure technological progress benefits the many, not just the few.
Learn more about his work:
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/simon-johnson
Power and Progress: Our 1000-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity:
https://shapingwork.mit.edu/power-and-progress/about-power-and-progress-our-thousand-year-struggle-over-technology-and-prosperity-2/
AI has the potential to fuel historic levels of wealth concentration, leaving workers behind while a handful of companies profit. Or we can choose policies that steer us toward shared prosperity. The future is still up to us.
Simon Johnson, MIT professor and co-author of Power and Progress, challenges the prevailing narrative that AI must inevitably replace workers. He argues that the future of AI depends on deliberate choices—whether it becomes a tool for worker empowerment or a mechanism for corporate consolidation. Johnson traces historical patterns of technological transformation, explaining how past industrial revolutions created new jobs alongside automation. He warns that without intervention from policymakers, business leaders, and society, AI could concentrate wealth and decision-making power in the hands of a small elite. His vision for “pro-worker AI” calls for strategic investments, regulations, and policies that ensure technological progress benefits the many, not just the few.
Learn more about his work:
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/simon-johnson
Power and Progress: Our 1000-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity:
https://shapingwork.mit.edu/power-and-progress/about-power-and-progress-our-thousand-year-struggle-over-technology-and-prosperity-2/
