If you want an answer, you will ask a machine. If you want a question to guide us through the uncertainty, you’ll ask a human. (30 min)
a16z Podcast: Apple and the Widgetification of Everything
Google wants AI to permeate the whole company. Apple sticks its toe in the water. (near end)
a16z Podcast: An Economics Take on the Sharing Economy
Disconnect between GDP and progress. The Sharing economy could trigger the shift away from GDP
- There’s a lot of value from psychological progress: consumer surplus. GDP doesn’t measure that.
- Distribution: it’s not measuring inequality
- Other quality of life measures: work-life balance, flexibility, other opportunities
Impacts of Sharing Economies
- Increasing through efficiencies
- Greater variety leads to increased consumption
- Shifting from employees: providers of labor, to owners of means of production: could decrease inequality.
- We may lose economies of scale, but we will regain.
Transitions to firm-market hybrids
Where machines could replace humans—and where they can’t (yet)
Because of the prevalence of such predictable physical work, some 59 percent of all manufacturing activities could be automated, given technical considerations. The overall technical feasibility, however, masks considerable variance. Within manufacturing, 90 percent of what welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers do, for example, has the technical potential for automation, but for customer-service representatives that feasibility is below 30 percent.
.. Manufacturing, for all its technical potential, is only the second most readily automatable sector in the US economy. A service sector occupies the top spot: accommodations and food service, where almost half of all labor time involves predictable physical activities and the operation of machinery—including preparing, cooking, or serving food; cleaning food-preparation areas; preparing hot and cold beverages; and collecting dirty dishes. According to our analysis, 73 percent of the activities workers perform in food service and accommodations have the potential for automation, based on technical considerations.
.. Retailing is another sector with a high technical potential for automation. We estimate that 53 percent of its activities are automatable, though, as in manufacturing, much depends on the specific occupation within the sector.