Americans at Work in the Age of Robots and Artificial Intelligence
FYSEMR 71G
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
Where will the coming generation of Americans (say, today’s 18-year-olds) find jobs? And will the jobs be worth having? People have worried about losing their jobs to technology at least since the Luddites 200 years ago. In the aggregate, they have been wrong. The automobile put lots of stable boys and saddle makers out of work, but it created vastly more jobs making cars, fueling them, and repairing them, and it opened the way for whole new industries like roadside motels and restaurants. With robots increasingly performing the tasks once done by blue-collar labor, however, and computers and artificial intelligence now eliminating the need for many workers once thought to be immune because of their cognitive skills, today’s technological threat seems different.
It is no longer just the unskilled and undereducated whose jobs are at risk. Moreover, the challenge may be especially acute in America, where wages are far higher than in many other countries and an ever-greater share of what we consume and invest not only can be provided from overseas but often is. Does the next generation of Americans, then, face a genuine threat from advancing workplace technology? If so, what are the dangers – not just economic, but social, political, even moral – to the country as a whole? Most importantly, what can we do about it?
Class Notes
First-Year Seminars are available only to first-year students. You may apply to both Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 First-Year Seminars via the FYS lottery between July 6 and August 6, 2026 at 11:59PM-midnight.
You may apply to as many seminars each term as you would like, but we recommend you apply to at least six in fall and three in spring.
As part of your application, you must provide a brief statement on why you are interested in each seminar. You will be notified of lottery results for both fall and spring seminars at 5 pm on August 11. If you are unsuccessful in the lottery, you may still join any seminar with open seats. A list of open seminars and instructions on next steps will be available on the First-Year Seminar Program website August 11 at 12 Noon.
Not Available for Cross Registration
