Labor

The House of Representatives passed Rep Mark Alford’s (R-MO) Small Business Technological Advancement Act, bipartisan legislation that ensures small businesses can use SBA 7(a) loans to invest in modern digital tools and technology needed to compete in today’s economy. The bill clarifies that loan funds may be used for essential business technologies such as accounting software, payroll systems, cybersecurity tools, inventory management platforms, cloud services, and emerging artificial intelligence applications.

The AI executives who loudly warned about mass job loss may have been wrong, said Zynga founder Mark Pincus. Several leading voices in Silicon Valley, including AI CEOs themselves, have softened their stance on AI-driven job loss. The softening rhetoric comes just before OpenAI and Anthropic are rumored to go public and also amid a surge in AI hate from consumers. Pincus said he doesn't buy "the doom and gloom that all the jobs are going to go away," mirroring the tone shift from AI's loudest evangelists.

Imagine coming in to work to learn that a new underling will report to you. The worker is not a person but an AI tool—one that your company nonetheless calls Alex, an “employee” with a title and defined responsibilities. How well do you think you would work with Alex? If you’re anything like the managers recently studied by Emma Wiles, a Boston University business professor, treating Alex as a “coworker” and not a software tool would lead you to do a worse job.

AI is moving from chat and web search to delegated work.

Congress has failed to address the work force disruption that artificial intelligence could generate. The White House, excited about the upside for stocks and investment, has downplayed the potential for widespread job losses.

Most Americans say they love working from home. They can skip their commutes, dodge their snippy co-workers, and evade their micromanaging bosses. In 2024, nearly 80 percent of workers said they would be happiest if they could work remotely. Both of us have experienced the advantages of remote work, especially when battling morning sickness or caring for a sick 6-year-old. But on some days, we wouldn’t venture outside or speak face-to-face with another human.

For states to meet the goal of completing all infrastructure projects by 2030, expansion of the broadband workforce is critical. Worker availability, wages and competition, and data limitations present barriers to growing the workforce.

AI is rapidly reshaping the skills employers want most from workers—increasing the emphasis on human skills such as judgement, creativity and leadership—as companies most able to use AI continue to expand hiring faster than their peers.

In 1838, the invention of the camera sparked predictions that photography would make artists obsolete. When the noted French painter Paul Delaroche first saw an early photograph on a metal plate, he declared that “From today, painting is dead!” As he reasoned, why would anyone pay an artist to slowly and laboriously paint a scene when a camera could do the job more accurately, more quickly, and at a lower cost? This question has echoed through technological shifts and has resurfaced with intensity in recent weeks, as university students graduated on campuses across the United States.

This week, the Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets held a fireside chat with Neil Thompson, director of the FutureTech project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and economic mobility.