AI Is Not Improving Productivity: Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu
From Me, Myself, and AI by MIT Sloan Management Review
February 24, 2026 · 33 min · Season 12
About this episode
Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu discusses the implications of AI on productivity and inequality.
In this bonus episode, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu joins Sam to challenge some of the most common assumptions about artificial intelligence’s future. Drawing on his book Power and Progress, Daron argues that technology doesn’t have a fixed destiny — and that today’s choices will determine whether AI boosts workers or simply accelerates automation and inequality. He makes a case for focusing on new tasks that complement human skills, rather than replacing them, and warns that current incentives push AI toward centralization and automation by default. The conversation tackles productivity myths, reliability risks, and why regulation should proactively steer AI toward social good. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Daron Acemoglu is an institute professor at MIT, faculty codirector of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work, and a research affiliate at MIT’s newly established Blueprint Labs. He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, the British Academy of Sciences, the Turkish Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric…
People in this episode
Host: Sam
Guest: Daron Acemoglu
Topics covered
- artificial intelligence
- productivity
- automation
- inequality
- regulation
- economics
Keywords
- artificial intelligence
- productivity
- automation
- inequality
- regulation
- Daron Acemoglu
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: MIT
Books & works: Power and Progress
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