Alumna Jessica Galica speaks with Boston Globe reporter Kara Baskin about women in the workforce, and how to create better work-life balance while also pursuing meaningful work. “In 2024, power is the freedom and flexibility to make choices that you want,” says Galica. “I do see women choosing to pause and choosing to downshift as a form of power — because they’re actively and intentionally making that choice. This is a way to exhibit that power, and to go after what you want.”
Prof. Simon Johnson, one of the recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, speaks with Times Higher Education reporter Jack Grove about his journey from a childhood in Sheffield as the son of a screw manufacturer to studying for his PhD at MIT and serving as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Speaking about how to help ensure AI is used to benefit society and workers, Johnson explains: “Big tech doesn’t like us, but we need a plan for this, and the role of economists like us is to get ideas like this out there so they can be hammered out in the policy world.”
Writing for Forbes, Senior Lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota SB '08, MS '16, MBA '16, shares five lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. “Starting a business is not just about having a brilliant idea; it's about finding purpose, solving real problems and building the right team,” explains Hayes-Mota.
Writing for The New York Times, Institute Prof. Daron Acemoglu explores the “three epochal changes poised to reshape the U.S. economy in coming years: an aging population, the rise of artificial intelligence and the rewiring of the global economy.” Acemoglu makes the case that “if handled correctly, these challenges could remake work and deliver much higher productivity, wages and opportunities — something the computer revolution promised and never fulfilled.” He adds: “If we mismanage the moment, they could make good, well-paying jobs scarcer and the economy less dynamic. Our decisions over the next five to 10 years will determine which path we take.”
Prof. Anna Stansbury speaks with Soumaya Keynes of the Financial Times podcast “The Economics Show” about her recent research on the class ceiling, which finds that an individual’s family circumstances can hold them back, even if they have earned a PhD. “We should care if people have opportunities to fulfill their talents for reasons of equity and justice. But the other is a very kind of banal economic reason, which is efficiency,” says Stansbury. “If you assume that talent for something is equally distributed, then we should care if people that are talented aren’t getting to fulfill that talent because it’s worse for overall productivity and overall outcomes.”
Writing for MarketWatch, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, emphasizes that the dockworker strike was “emblematic of broader shifts in the American workforce and the integration of technology in the workplace. As older generations retire and younger ones seek more flexible, technology-driven careers, traditional industries must adapt or be left behind.”
Prof. David Autor speaks with Washington Post reporter Cat Zakrzewski about AI automation in the workforce. Autor notes that when it comes to AI’s impact on the labor market the “concern should not be the number of jobs. We're actually running out of workers, not running out of jobs because of our demographics, but whether we have jobs that reward people's expertise and knowledge rather than jobs that displace expertise and knowledge and don't leave people with a viable, highly paid thing to do.”
Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray about the challenges and risks posed by implementing automation, amid the dockworkers strike. Sheffi emphasized the importance of gradually introducing new technologies and offering workers training to work with AI. “There will be new jobs,” says Sheffi. “And we want the current workers to be able to get these new jobs.”
Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Associated Press reporter Cathy Bussewitz about how automation could impact the workforce, specifically dockworkers. “You cannot bet against the march of technology,” says Sheffi. “You cannot ban automation, because it will creep up in other places... The trick is to make it over time, not do it haphazardly.”
Prof. David Autor speaks with Washington Post reporter Cat Zakrzewski about the anticipated impact of AI in various industries. “We are just learning how to use AI and what it's good for, and it will take a while to figure out how to use it really productively,” says Autor.
MIT researchers have found that more workers without college degrees are optimistic about AI and automation initiatives in the workplace, than those workers with a college diploma, reports Rebecca Klar for Bloomberg Law. The study found “27.4% of workers without a college degree estimated that automation will be beneficial for their job security, compared to 23.7% of workers with a college degree,” explains Klar.
Researchers at MIT have found that “60% of workers who work with robotics and AI think they’ll see positive career impacts as a result in terms of productivity, satisfaction, and job safety,” reports Sam Becker for Fast Company.
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Bloomberg reporters John Lee and Katia Dmitrieva about the social and economic impacts of AI. “We don’t know where the future lies,” says Acemoglu. “There are many directions, the technology is malleable, we can make different choices.”
Researchers from MIT and Stanford University have found “staff at one Fortune 500 software firm became 14% more productive on average when using generative AI tools,” reports Olivia Solon and Seth Fiegerman for Bloomberg.
Jeff Karp, an affiliate faculty member with the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, speaks with NBC Boston 10 reporter Renée Onque about the “pendulum lifestyle” – a new outlook on work-life balance detailed in Karp’s book “LIT: Life Ignition Tools.” "We hear these things from others, [like] trust in the process [and] balance is so important, we need more balance, it's the ultimate goal," says Karp. "It ends up being very frustrating and can lead to anxiety, because we're constantly feeling like we're not in balance. There's a state we should be in [and] we're never in that state."