Labor as Capital: AI and the Ownership of Expertise | Research Seminar with Danielle Li

HYBRID FORMAT
Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 857 9248 4298

Professor Li will present her co-authored work, Labor as Capital: AI and the Ownership of Expertise (with Zoe Cullen and Shengwu Li)

Abstract | Workplace surveillance increasingly generates data that can train AI systems to replicate worker expertise. Using a large online survey experiment of U.S. workers, we provide evidence that workers believe that they have valuable uncodified knowledge about how to perform their jobs, and believe that they have substantial flexibility in how much knowledge they can withhold or share with their employers.  We formalize this behavior in a model of knowledge supply under surveillance-enabled AI and use it to evaluate alternative policies. Individual data ownership---workers' preferred policy---eliminates knowledge withholding but creates negative externalities: one worker’s data strengthens the firm’s bargaining position against others, potentially making all workers worse off. In contrast, collective data ownership achieves the first-best outcome, promoting knowledge sharing while allowing workers to benefit from AI-driven productivity gains. These findings highlight the importance of labor agreements in shaping AI adoption in labor markets.

Danielle Li is the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology and a Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research interests are in economics of innovation and labor economics, with a focus on how organizations evaluate ideas, projects, and people. Danielle's work has been published in leading academic journals across a range of fields, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Science, and Management Science. In addition, her work has been regularly featured in  media outlets such as the Economist, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. She has previously taught at the Harvard Business School and the Kellogg School of Management. She holds an AB in mathematics and the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in economics from MIT.