It's a labor-shifting device, rather than a productivity-increasing device
21 November 2022 (MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology). MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, discussing a 2022 study on automation and wage inequality in the US, describing self-checkout kiosks and similar automation.
Study: Automation drives income inequality - MIT News
More from Daron Acemoglu · AI and jobs · AI and money · 2022
Who else?
What it refers to: Self-checkout kiosks and similar automation, which cut wages for low-skill service workers while changing productivity little.
Other voices
- “The employment of machinery is frequently detrimental to their interests” David Ricardo,
- “Putting people out of work and making the rich richer and poor poorer” Geoffrey Hinton, Researcher,
- “AI may be able to write the recipe for more productivity, stronger growth, and new kinds of work” Beth Ann Bovino, Investor,
- “A technology of, by and for oligarchs” Paul Krugman, Researcher,
- “Racing with the machine beats racing against the machine” Erik Brynjolfsson,
- “Whose house in the Hamptons will get another wing?” Meredith Whittaker, Builder,










