"Power and Progress": Important book about technologies at our doorstep

While discussions on the topic of AI have been ongoing for years, they weren't as prominent outside the circle of enthusiasts. That changed one year ago when OpenAI introduced ChatGPT in November 2022. A chart below shows rapid growth of interest in this subject.

From Google Trends:

Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.

Google Trends: Interest over time for AI and space

Over this period, we've seen countless attempts to apply ChatGPT and other generative tools like Modjourney with various degrees of success. I use ChatGPT regularly because it's a great tool that can be very helpful. At the same time, some people were replaced by AI, websites use it to automatically grab content from Reddit, certain actors simply employ AI to produce fake content and reviews, and many human-powered writers composed a tremendous amount of posts on the topic. Count this one too!

From what I see, there are two dominant lines of thought. Proponents of the first approach are optimistic, they believe that AI will solve all our problems and lead us to a better place. Their opponents are afraid that AI will only deepen the already growing level of economic inequality, rendering regular people less powerful in a political sense. Considering these divergent views, the question inevitably arises: which camp is right?

We don't know yet, as nothing is predetermined. It's the direction of development and the application of AI-driven solutions that will decide the outcome. In short, this is what Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoğlu and Simon Johnson is about. They argue that innovations benefit elites not because this is an intrinsic feature of technologies, but because elites have the means to steer their development.

To support this thesis, the book includes examples from history, covering the period from the first agricultural revolution to post-World War II growth, and pointing to differences in how technologies were applied and policied. With the right approach, the authors insist, innovations can lead to shared prosperity. However, that's not going to happen on its own.

With that, "Power and Progress" can serve as a valuable guide as we navigate through the uncertain terrain of AI advancements. The book is written in simple English language. You don't need any prior knowledge of politics, economics, or technologies to understand it. I recommend reading it.