Doomsday or Utopia? - by David K Levine (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Will AI take your job? Economist David K. Levine says no and explains why.

Headlines warn that artificial intelligence will wipe out jobs, hand control of the economy to a few tech billionaires, and rot our brains or lead to untold prosperity. So, which is it? Doomsday or Utopia? tests those predictions against what economics and the history of technology actually show.

David K. Levine, an MIT-trained economist who has studied game theory and innovation for decades and has written software since 1970, starts with a fact the AI doomsayers ignore. Between 1976 and 2026, nonfarm employment in the United States roughly doubled, contrary to predictions that offshoring, personal computers, and factory robots would end work. He then shows what that record means for AI and the future of work.

This book covers:

- How machine learning and large language models work, and why AI knowledge is shallow compared to human expertise.

- Why comparative advantage and technological advances lead to new demand for human work, from software developers to doctors.

- How AI will impact our analytical capabilities, education, how research gets done, and fields ranging from caregiving to space exploration.

Levine rejects both the dystopian and utopian scenarios surrounding discussions of AI. His forecast is more ordinary--and more useful: real disruption and losses for some workers, but also a more productive economy in which most people end up better off. He also warns against fear-driven policies that could choke off such advances.

Levine provides a clear, evidence-based guide to the future of work for policymakers, students, professionals weighing their careers, business leaders, and anyone who wants the economics of artificial intelligence without the hype.

About the Author

David K. Levine is an economist, trained at MIT. He has taught economics at UCLA, the University of Minnesota, Washington University in St. Louis, the European University Institute, and currently teaches at Royal Holloway University of London. His fields of research include economic theory, game theory, mathematical economics, and the economics of innovation. He is the coauthor of Against Intellectual Monopoly: Is Behavioral Economics Doomed?