Economics of Innovation, Automation, Safety Nets & Universal Basic Income

Economics of Innovation, Automation, Safety Nets & Universal Basic Income

Lex Fridman interviews Paul Krugman in the latest episode of his podcast.

Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize winner in economics, professor at CUNY, and columnist at the New York Times. His academic work centers around international economics, economic geography, liquidity traps, and currency crises. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast.

OUTLINE:
0:00 – Introduction
3:44 – Utopia from an economics perspective
4:51 – Competition
6:33 – Well-informed citizen
7:52 – Disagreements in economics
9:57 – Metrics of outcomes
13:00 – Safety nets
15:54 – Invisible hand of the market
21:43 – Regulation of tech sector
22:48 – Automation
25:51 – Metric of productivity
30:35 – Interaction of the economy and politics
33:48 – Universal basic income
36:40 – Divisiveness of political discourse
42:53 – Economic theories
52:25 – Starting a system on Mars from scratch
55:11 – International trade
59:08 – Writing in a time of radicalization and Twitter mobs

JPMorgan CIO Says AI Holds Promise for Helping People Save

JPMorgan CIO Says AI Holds Promise for Helping People Save

JPMorgan is using AI in various parts of its business, including client services.

Here’s a great article in the Wall Street Journal about how AI can help people save money and maybe address some socio-economic issues.

The bank is also using AI to automate repetitive and mundane tasks. A machine-learning model ingests all of the company’s travel and expense data and does automatic audits, eliminating the need for managers to approve expenses, Ms. Beer said. It’s “taking some bureaucracy out of our managers’ hands,” she added.

Economics of AI Today

Economics of AI Today

Wide deployment of AI systems will up end the labor market and economy in ways we can barely yet imagine. Think of what someone from 1919 would think of Amazon, Facebook, or convenience stores.

Economists have been studying the relationship between technological change, productivity, and employment for a few centuries now.

Naturally, the rise of AI applications from driving cars to tumor detection in medical scans has now become a focus of their attention.

In September 2017, a group of distinguished economists gathered in Toronto to set out a research agenda for the Economics of Artificial Intelligence (AI). They covered questions such as what is economically unique about AI, what will be its impacts, and what are the right policies to enhance its benefits.

Alibaba’s Shows Off AI in the Hotel of the Future

Alibaba’s Shows Off AI in the Hotel of the Future

From CNBC International:

Imagine skipping hotel check-in and walking straight to your room with a scan of your face. This could soon become a reality at many hotels in China and around the world. CNBC’s Uptin Saiidi experiences what the hotel of the future may look like and Alibaba’s ambitious plans for the sector.

You can imagine the impact this will have on jobs in the hospitality industry.

Will Call Center Jobs Disappear?

Will Call Center Jobs Disappear?

Bloomberg explores the very real digital disruption happening in the call center industry.

This video explores a call center in the Dominican Republic, where Laura Morales is designing chatbots to respond to customer service requests.

Morales, a former call center agent herself, has benefited from her new job that is better paid and higher skilled than what she used to do.

Will these chatbots end up replacing the livelihoods of millions of agents around the world?

George Gilder on Why Blockchain is the Future

George Gilder on Why Blockchain is the Future

George Gilder, author of Life After Google, argues that bitcoin and blockchain technology is revolutionizing the Internet.

In this video, sit down with Peter Robinson to discuss technology, cloud computing, big data, and the growing role of blockchain in innovating new technologies.

From the description:

Gilder argues that cloud computing, while it was the hot new technology ten years ago, has reached its limits as the physical limitations of big data storage centers maxes out. Improvements in parsing big data are incremental at this point, and it’s time for the next big technology to take its place.

Gilder points to blockchain as the technology of the future, with its ability to prevent corruption and manipulation of transaction data and the infinite uses it could have in third world countries. Gilder also discusses the history of technology, artificial intelligence, and the revolutionary bitcoin.

He argues that artificial intelligence can never replace human intelligence and creativity and that in principle, it is impossible for machines to take over.