Power and progress Daron Acemoglu Simon Johnson

"Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity" is a book by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. It is a sweeping history of more than a thousand years of technical change. The authors take aim at economists’ mindless enthusiasm for technical change and their crippling neglect of power. The book argues that technological advances such as AI won’t automatically lead to broad-based prosperity. They may end up benefiting only a wealthy elite. The main alternative narrative is about productivity. The authors argue that if productivity gains are produced by automation, workers don’t see the benefits.