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Is AI Productivity Worth Our Humanity? with Prof. Michael Sandel

2025/6/26

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People

Elon Musk

以长期主义为指导，推动太空探索、电动汽车和可再生能源革命的企业家和创新者。

Michael Sandel

Tristan Harris

一位致力于推动技术行业采取更人道和负责的开发和使用实践的技术伦理专家和公益活动家。

Topics

Tristan Harris: 人工智能正在迅速发展，可能导致前所未有的就业岗位流失。我们需要从全球化和自动化的历史中吸取教训，避免重蹈覆辙，确保生产力提升的益处能够惠及所有人，而不仅仅是少数人。如果不能妥善解决，可能会导致社会结构的撕裂。 Michael Sandel: 人工智能引发了深刻的伦理问题，特别是关于技术如何改变人类本质的问题。我们必须思考，即使人工智能在物质上能够提供富足，我们是否会因此失去一些重要的东西，比如区分虚拟与现实的能力，以及人与人之间真实的连接和存在感。经济的目的不应仅仅是追求消费者的福利和GDP的增长，更重要的是要确保每个人都能为共同利益做出贡献，并赢得尊重和认可。我们需要重新思考工作的意义，以及如何在人工智能时代维护工作的尊严和社会凝聚力。我们需要对技术应该服务于什么目的进行公开辩论，并投资于能够丰富和加强工作，而不是取代工作的技术变革。 Elon Musk: 人工智能将能够完成一切，人们可以为了个人满足感而选择工作，人工智能将成为均衡器，财富将分配给每个人。

Deep Dive

Chapters

AI promises unprecedented abundance through automation, but this promise is questionable given past experiences with globalization and automation, which led to job displacement and increased inequality despite promises of shared prosperity. The podcast explores whether AI will repeat this pattern or be different.

AI is expected to displace jobs at an unprecedented level.
Past automation and globalization led to job losses and increased inequality, despite promises of shared prosperity.
The podcast questions the likelihood of AI delivering on its promise of abundance and equal distribution of wealth.

Shownotes Transcript

Tech leaders promise that AI automation will usher in an age of unprecedented abundance: cheap goods, universal high income, and freedom from the drudgery of work. But even if AI delivers material prosperity, will that prosperity be shared? And what happens to human dignity if our labor and contributions become obsolete?

Political philosopher Michael Sandel joins Tristan Harris to explore why the promise of AI-driven abundance could deepen inequalities and leave our society hollow. Drawing from his landmark work on justice and merit, Sandel argues that this isn't just about economics — it's about what it means to be human when our work role in society vanishes, and whether democracy can survive if productivity becomes our only goal.

We've seen this story before with globalization: promises of shared prosperity that instead hollowed out the industrial heart of communities, economic inequalities, and left holes in the social fabric. Can we learn from the past, and steer the AI revolution in a more humane direction?

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology). Follow us on X: @HumaneTech_). You can find a full transcript, key takeaways, and much more on our Substack).RECOMMENDED MEDIA

The Tyranny of Merit by Michael Sandel)

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Take Michael’s online course “Justice”)

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Further reading on “The Intelligence Curse”)

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Read the full text of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 speech)

Neil Postman’s lecture on the seven questions to ask of any new technology)RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

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