Nov. 11, 2024

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MILWAUKEE — Dr. David Autor, the Daniel and Gail Rubinfeld Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will deliver Marquette Business’ annual Marburg Memorial Lecture, “Expertise, Artificial Intelligence, and the Work of the Future,” which will examine the opportunities that AI opens for the labor market, as well as some of the risks it poses, on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 3:30 p.m. at Alumni Memorial Union, 1442 W. Wisconsin Ave.

The lecture, hosted by the Department of Economics in the College of Business Administration, is free and open to the public; registration is required and available online.

Will recent advances in AI complement human expertise, thereby increasing its value, or render it increasingly unnecessary, thus reducing its value (even if jobs are not in net eliminated)? Autor will frame this question through the lens of three technological revolutions of the last two centuries: the Industrial Revolution, the Computer Revolution and the AI Revolution. In each, the types of expertise rewarded changed substantially, with vastly uneven consequences for workers in different occupations and possessing different education levels. These forces will play out differently in the AI era than in preceding decades. 

Autor is also the codirector of the National Bureau of Economic Research Labor Studies Program and the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative. His scholarship explores the labor-market impacts of technological change and globalization on job polarization, skill demands, earnings levels and inequality, and electoral outcomes.

Autor has received numerous awards for both his scholarship—the National Science Foundation
CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of Labor Economics, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2019, the Society for Progress Medal in 2021—and for his teaching, including the MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellowship. In 2020, Autor received the Heinz 25th Special Recognition Award from the Heinz Family Foundation for his work “transforming our understanding of how globalization and technological change are impacting jobs and earning prospects for American workers.” In 2023, Autor was one of two researchers across all scientific fields selected as a NOMIS Distinguished Scientist.

The Economist labeled Autor in 2019 as “the academic voice of the American worker.”
Later that same year, and with equal justification, he was christened “Twerpy MIT Economist” by
John Oliver of Last Week Tonight in a segment on automation and employment.

The Marburg Lecture series is named in honor of the late Theodore F. Marburg, a longtime member of Marquette’s Department of Economics. The goal of the lecture is to provide a forum for the discussion of moral, philosophical, and social dimensions of economic issues, as well as continue Professor Marburg's commitment to the economic aspects of peace and justice. The Marburg Lecture is made possible by the generosity of the Marburg family and through the support of the Center for Global and Economic Studies.