March Slugs and Steins with Dean PK Agarwal
The Future of Work in the Age of AI: Chaos, Adaptation, or Growth?
Artificial intelligence has reignited an old debate: are we approaching mass technological unemployment, or simply the next phase of economic evolution? Public discourse swings between dystopian predictions of human obsolescence and confident assurances that “new jobs will replace old ones.” This lecture steps back from speculation and examines evidence. Drawing on economic history and disruptive change, going back to the wheel and the printing press to electrification, computers, and the internet—we explore how societies have repeatedly confronted disruptive change: moments when existing skills, institutions, and expectations no longer matched the pace of innovation. The goal is not to predict the future, but to provide a framework for thinking about it—what AI may automate, what it may amplify, and why the real disruption may be the speed of adaptation rather than the disappearance of work itself. The talk concludes with implications for higher education, workforce development, and how individuals can remain resilient in an age where intelligence is no longer exclusively human.