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Erik Brynjolfsson talks

Year in Review

Taking a Look Back:
10 Lab Highlights from 2022

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Of course, we did so much more than 10 things during the past year, but to capture all the highlights here—including the Lab’s groundbreaking research—would send you into a forever scroll. So we’ve whittled the list down to the top 10 things we did during the past year that helped advance the collective understanding of the digital economy.

To keep up with the Lab and our work, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and sign up for email updates about future events.

1 / Essay

Erik Brynjolfsson warns of falling into ‘The Turing Trap’

In his far-reaching essay, Erik Brynjolfsson warns of the dangers of focusing AI development on systems that surpass human capabilities rather than systems that augment humans.

In Janurary, Lab Director Erik Brynjolfsson released “The Turing Trap: The Promise & Peril of Human-Like Artificial Intelligence,” in which he warns that “an excessive focus on developing and deploying human-like artificial intelligence can lead us into a trap.” The essay was later published in the spring issue of Daedalus, “AI & Society” (see #3 on our list) and served as the basis for our spring workshop.

Related
The Turing Trap: A conversation with Erik Brynjolfsson on the promise and peril of human-like AI
Brookings Institution

Economists Pin More Blame on Tech for Rising Inequality
The New York Times

AI Shouldn’t Compete With Workers—It Should Supercharge Them
Wired

How to Solve AI’s Inequality Problem
MIT Technology Review

2 / Collaboration

A redesigned, more rigorous jobs report

The Lab collaborated with the ADP Research Institute to launch the reimagined ADP National Employment Report and ADP Pay Insights Report.
Chef in kitchen
The ADP National Employment Report and ADP Pay Insights Report are based on anonymized and aggregated payroll data from more than 25 million US employees across 500,000 companies. 

In May of 2022, the ADP Research Institute paused its monthly ADP® National Employment Report in order to refine its methodology and design. Part of that evolution was teaming up with our data scientists to add new perspective and rigor to the report. The newly designed report, which launched in August, uses fine-grained, high-frequency data on jobs and wages to deliver a richer and more useful analysis of the labor market.

Related
ADP National Employment Report 

ADP Pay Insights Report

A Key Barometer of the US Job Market Returns With Some Improvements
Bloomberg


3 / Publications

A comprehensive collection of views about AI and society

The spring issue of Daedalus featured several contributions by leaders and advisors from the Lab and Stanford HAI.
Eric Schmidt and James Manyika discuss the spring issue of Daedalus at our spring workshop.

In the spring issue of Daedalus—from the Academy of Arts and Sciences—experts explored various angles of artificial intelligence, including its effects on labor and the economy, its role in law and governance, and what it says about us as humans. The issue, which was edited by James Manyika, featured several contributors from the Lab and Stanford HAI community.

Featured essays
Searching for Computer Vision North Stars
Fei-Fei Li (Affiliated Faculty) and Ranjay Krishna

Automation, Augmentation, Value Creation & the Distribution of Income & Wealth
Michael Spence (Advisory Group)

Automation, AI & Work
Laura D’Andrea Tyson (Digital Fellow) and John Zysman

Socializing Data
Diane Coyle (Advisory Group)

AI, Great Power Competition & National Security
Eric Schmidt (Advisory Group)

The Turing Trap: The Promise & Peril of Human-Like Artificial Intelligence
0 Erik Brynjolfsson (Lab Director)

4 / Report

Exploring the future of work in California

What’s the current state of the California labor market—and what might it look like in the next 100 years? Our researchers delved deep into these questions as part of the California 100 initiative.
Delivery courier on bike
The Future of Work in California project examined 27 occupations from nine different regions across the state.

As part of the California 100 initiative, researchers at the Lab and SIEPR examined where the Golden State has been, where it’s at, and where it’s headed when it comes to possible scenarios and policy alternatives for the future. The large-scale report, The Future of Work in California, examines several facets of the California labor market, including its polarized workforce and the erosion of its middle class.

Related|
Future of Work in California website

Stanford Digital Economy Lab and SIEPR to evaluate the future of work in California

California 100 website

5 / Fall conference

Building the New Economy: Data as Capital

Our fall conference reminded us that as humans continue to develop new technologies, we also must reimagine how society is organized so that data serves all communities.
Stanford visiting scholar Sandy Pentland delivers the keynote address at our fall conference.

As humans continue to develop brilliant new applications of emerging technologies, such as web3, we need to reimagine how our society is organized so that data serves all communities. The speakers and panelists who participated in “Building the New Economy: Data as Capital,” a special Stanford Digital Economy Lab event as part of Stanford Digital Assets Week, explored the feasibility and implications of human-centered web3.

Recap of Building the New Economy: Data as Capital

Playlist: Building the New Economy: Data as Capital
YouTube

6 / Spring workshop

Avoiding the Turing Trap

Our first-ever in-person event brought together researchers and experts to explore the dangers of incentivizing automation more than augmentation.
Nela Richardson, chief economist of ADP, delivers the keynote at our spring workshop.
Nela Richardson, chief economist of ADP, delivers the keynote at our spring workshop.

What will the workplace look like in 20 years with the rise of artificial intelligence and other digital technologies? Our daylong workshop, Avoiding the Turing Trap, featured interactive panel discussions and presentations by Lab-affiliated researchers showcasing their recent work. Erik Brynjolfsson opened the event by framing the opportunities and challenges of human-like AI. Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, closed the day with her keynote address, “AI’s People Problem.”

Related
Recap: Avoiding the Turing Trap

7 / Fall workshop

Decentralized Society: Digitization, Democracy, and Civil Discourse

The one-day event examined the challenges of web2 technologies and explored how web3 technologies might solve them.

In October, the Lab brought together leaders from industry, civil society, and academia to discuss the promise and peril of decentralized digital architecture for our political and economic systems. In the workshop, Decentralized Society: Digitization, Democracy, and Civil Discourse, panelists explored key questions such as new governance strategies, privacy paradigms, business models, and content moderation systems.

Related
Recap: Decentralized Society | Digitization, Democracy, and Civil Discourse

8 / Research

Who’s helping you get your next job?

A new study suggests that your weak connections on LinkedIn could help you land a new job.
Man with tablet
The report, A Causal Test of the Strength of Weak Ties, suggests that your weaker connections on LinkedIn may help you get new job prospects more than your strong ones.

While networking on digital platforms can lead to new job opportunities, a study published earlier this year, A Causal Test of the Strength of Weak Ties, suggests that the specific types of connections job-seekers make online matter in terms of their ability to secure new positions. The project, which was conducted by Erik Brynjolfsson (Stanford), Sinan Aral (MIT), Iavor Bojinov (Harvard), and two LinkedIn employees and recent Stanford and MIT Ph.D. graduates Karthik Rajkumar and Guillaume Saint-Jacques, involved more than 20 million LinkedIn members, who made 2 billion new ties and created 600,000 new jobs over a five-year period.

Related
A Causal Test of the Strength of Weak Ties
Science

Looking For a Job? Some LinkedIn Connections Matter More Than Others
Harvard Business Review

9 / Seminar Series

From robots in China to fake news to the future of the metaverse

The Lab weclomed researchers and experts to share their insights about topics and issues that matter to them—and to the future of the digital economy.
Marshall Van Alstyne, professor at Boston University and a Stanford digital fellow, joined us in April to talk about platforms and the fake news problem.

Throughout the year, the Lab welcomed researchers and experts from all over the world to share their work and insights to a larger, broader audience. You can watch (or re-watch) every one of our Seminar Series talks from the past year on our website and on our YouTube channel.

Related
Recap: Our 2022 Seminar Series

10 / Competition

Emerging Technology Policy Writing Competition

The inaugural competition called upon Stanford students to come up with policy solutions that leverage emerging technologies that could enhance the future of work.
The Emerging Technology Policy Writing Compeition awarded a total of $10,000 in prizes to students with the most innovative policy solutions.

The Lab, in collaboration with Stanford HAI and SIEPR, put out a call for student submissions during the summer for innovative policy analysis and solutions that leverage emerging technologies to create jobs. The Emerging Technology Policy Writing Competition awarded a total of $10,000 in prizes to three winning entries. The first place prize went to to Aniket Baksy and Avi Gupta for their policy suggestion, “Expanding AI Adoption is an Opportunity for Job Creation.”

Related
View winners and competition details

And this also happened…

We welcomed several new faces this year to the Lab, including our first-ever visiting scholar, Sandy Pentland. Among those who also joined us in 2022 include Ruyu Chen, Gabriel Unger, Megan Deason, Andrew Wang, Anthony Weng, David Autor, Angela Chen, Christina Langer, and Ruhani Walia. Visit the team section of our site to view everyone who contributes to the Lab.

In June, Lab affiliated faculty member Susan Athey joined the Department of Justice as chief economist of the antitrust division.

Our research teams published or co-published several papers and journal articles, including the working paper, “How Many Americans Work Remotely?” View all of our research and publications.

We launched The DigDig, our bi-monthly digest of stories—some obscure—making headlines in the digital economy. Sign up to receive The DigDig in your inbox..

SEMINAR SERIES

In Review: Seminar Series 2022

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From robots in China to free speech on digital platforms to the future of the metaverse, our 2022 Seminar Series featured experts discussing topics focused on AI and the digital economy.

All Stanford Digital Economy Lab seminars are free, virtual, and open to the public.You can view recordings of most past events on our YouTube channel or by visiting the links of past events below.

An attendee asks a question of the panel

Event

Recap
Building the New Economy: Data as Capital
A Stanford Digital Assets Week event

Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Fall 2022 Conference

Stanford University
November 17, 2022

Photography by Christine Baker

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Web3 presents new digital means of production and an opportunity to rebalance the relationships between all stakeholders of the economy. As humans continue to develop brilliant new applications of emerging technologies, we need to reimagine the ways our society is organized so that data serves all communities.

The speakers and panelists who participated in “Building the New Economy: Data as Capital,” a special Stanford Digital Economy Lab event as part of Stanford Digital Assets Week, examined the feasibility and implications of human-centered web3, including:

  • — the role of collective citizen organizations in managing the way data is controlled
  • — more resilient and inclusive systems that spread financial and health benefits more widely
  • — the possibilities we unlock when systems are interoperable so that knowledge, trade, and interaction can flow across company and national boundaries.

The agenda featured three panel discussions and a keynote by Stanford Digital Economy Lab fellow Sandy Pentland. Keep scrolling to view videos of the panels and the keynote address.

Keynote

Building the New Economy: What We Need and How to Get There

Sandy Pentland, MIT; Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Sandy Pentland delivers his keynote address at Building the New Economy: Data as Capital.

Sandy Pentland (MIT, Stanford Digital Economy Lab) opened the day by examining the current state of web3 and providing a brief overview of what companies and policymakers must do to help it grow so that the technology benefits everyone in society. Video also includes a welcome by Christie Ko and an introduction by Erik Brynjolfsson. (Keynote begins at 13:55).

Panel Discussion

The Human Perspective: New Types of Engagement

Lucy Bernholz, Digital Civil Society Lab
Delicia Hand, Consumer Reports
Melissa Valentine, Stanford University
Sheila Warren, Crypto Council for Innovation
Sheila Warren, Delicia Hand, and Lucy Bernholz
Sheila Warren, Delicia Hand, and Lucy Bernholz participate in the first panel discussion of the day.

As digital businesses replace traditional physical businesses and civic systems, we must grapple with the implications of the amount of data, and resulting power, held by a small number of actors. As in the past, citizen organizations may be central in helping balance economic and social power (much like trade unions and cooperative banking institutions formed as a response to the forces of industrialization and consumer banking). This panel discussion explored how community organizations can wield data cooperatives, shared data, and distributed tokenized funding mechanisms to form a system based on collective rights and accountability.

Panel Discussion

Resilient Systems: Making Society Work Better

Jennifer King, Stanford University
Brie Linkenhoker, Worldview Studio
Joshua Tan, Metagovernance Project; Digital Civil Society Lab
Brie Linkenhoker, Joshua Tan, and Jennifer King discuss how web3 and other new technologies can make society work better.

New distributed, technology-enabled organizations may offer a path toward more resilient, transparent, inclusive, agile, and proactive systems, and a better future, particularly in places where existing institutions are either weak or underserved. In this panel discussion, we explore how new architectures could provide significant upgrades to — or enable wholly new — systems of currency and finance, taxation, and privacy.

Panel Discussion

Data and AI: A New Ecology

Dazza Greenwood, MIT Media Lab
Jeff Hancock, Stanford Social Media Lab
Sean McDonald, Stanford Digital Civil Society Lab
Sandy Pentland, MIT; Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Jeff Hancock, Dazza Greenwood, Sean McDonald, and Sandy Pentland talk about building a more beneficial data infrastructure.

To support a world with billions of data owners, producers, and consumers, governed by digital data and AI, we need to build infrastructure that enables interoperability across company and national boundaries. This infrastructure will determine the future of finance and money, civic engagement, and factors that contribute to human flourishing. This panel discussion explores the opportunities and challenges of designing ecosystems of trusted data and AI that provide safe, secure, and human-centered services for everyone.

Closing

Closing Remarks

Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Erik Brynjolfsson shares final thoughts of the day.

Stanford Digital Economy Lab Director Erik Brynjolfsson closed the day with a few words about the future of data and decentralization.

Panelists
and moderators

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Event

Recap: Decentralized Society | Digitization, Democracy, and Civil Discourse

by Angela Chen

Stanford Digital Economy Lab Fall 2022 Conference
Stanford University
October 7, 2022

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The one-day event examined the challenges of web2 technologies and explored how web3 technologies could address them

Digitization has changed our economic, social, and political infrastructure irrevocably, centralizing and codifying our knowledge and challenging our institutions and norms. It has also given rise to misinformation, disinformation, polarization, and a succession of other challenges to civil society. With the recent drive toward decentralization, social media, interest and affinity groups, communities, news media, and other institutions and platforms face various challenges and opportunities enabled by AI, web3, and emerging technologies.

On October 7, 2022, the Stanford Digital Economy Lab brought together leaders from industry, civil society, and academia for Decentralized Society: Digitization, Democracy, and Civil Discourse, an event to discuss the promise and peril of decentralized digital architecture for our political and economic systems. 

During the event, speakers addressed a question often debated by academics and civil society alike: “What is it about web2 technology that poses a challenge to democracy, and how can emerging technologies protect it?” Current web2 technology promotes great velocity, virality, and volume of information transfer, exacerbated by anonymity and echo chambers. The strength and reach of social media platforms have turned private companies into de-facto regulators, and consequently, has given them more influence than governments over democratic participation and free speech. 

Decentralized platforms may address some of these challenges and return more control to the hands of users over their data, the information they consume, and how they choose to participate in democratic institutions. However, these platforms require society to address a series of questions:

  • – Who will own the data — individuals, companies, or another party?
  • – If data becomes an asset class, what does it mean for your personal life, society, and the economy?
  • – Who will build the core protocols, and how will they be built?
  • – How do we maintain the benefits of network effects in a decentralized system?
  • – How will people be incentivized to adopt web3?
  • – Who will govern web3 and how can we strike a balance between regulation and innovation?
  • – What can we do now to protect democracy and privacy as the new infrastructure is being built?

The event was the first of two fall gatherings focused on decentralized digital architecture, in which the Lab explores the impact of AI and digital infrastructure on society by examining key questions, such as governance strategies, privacy paradigms, business models, and content moderation systems.

Curious to learn more? Register for Building the New Economy: Data as Capital, which will take place on November 17, 2022, from 10:00 am to 5;00 pm PT at Stanford University. Part of Stanford Digital Assets Week, this special event will examine the feasibility and implications of human-centered web3, including the role of collective citizen organizations in managing the way data is controlled. Participants will also explore resilient and inclusive systems that spread financial and health benefits and the possibilities we unlock when systems are interoperable so that knowledge, trade, and interaction can flow across company and national boundaries.

“When knowledge is codified and digitized, it becomes alienable and potentially centralized. In turn, centralizing essential assets centralizes bargaining power. Concentration of economic power begets concentration of political power.”

Erik Brynjolfsson

Erik Brynjolfsson

Director, Stanford Digital Economy Lab

Information Assets, Technology, and Organization, 1994. Brynjolfsson and Ng, 2022

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