greater challenges. some of these workers may seek to develop expertise in the aspects of their jobs for which ai is particularly ill - suited. yet, many of these more - exposed workers may need to invest in training in alternative occupations that are less exposed to ai, similar to some of the skill - retraining efforts for manufacturing workers over the past 50 years. conclusion in closing, i suspect that the tremendous uncertainty i highlighted related to ai's implications for the labor market will be some combination of disconcerting and exciting for many in the audience, especially those who will be graduating and launching their careers in the coming years. my recommendation to you is to take the time to experiment with ai, familiarizing yourself with its capabilities and limitations. doing so will make you well placed to help your future employers - and that could include yourselves - transform their business processes to effectively use ai. and for the smaller subset of you who are purely excited about the opportunity presented by ai, i look forward to seeing the innovative new products and services you create and disseminate throughout the economy to raise the living standards for all americans. thank you for having me at the ohio state university. i look forward to your questions. 1 the views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my colleagues on the federal open market committee. 2 the august 2024 beige book is available on the board's website at https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / monetarypolicy / files / beigebook _ 20240904. pdf. 3 see erik brynjolfsson, danielle li, and lindsey r. raymond ( 2023 ), " generative ai at work, " nber working paper series 31161 ( cambridge, mass. : national bureau of economic research, april ; revised november ). 6 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches 4 see david h. autor, frank levy, and richard j. murnane ( 2003 ), " the skill content of recent technological change : an empirical exploration, " quarterly journal of economics, vol. 118 ( november ), pp. 1279a€ “ 1333. 5 see bloomberg industrial group ( 2024 ), " how is ai changing the legal profession? " bloomberg law, may 23. 6 see sida peng, eirini kalliamvakou, peter cihon, and mert demirer ( 2023 ), " the impact of ai on developer productivity : evidence from github

lisa d cook : what will artificial intelligence mean for america's workers? speech by ms lisa d cook, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the ohio state university, columbus, ohio, 26 september 2024. * * * i am grateful for the educational opportunities this university has afforded my family over the years, including my uncle samuel dubois cook who received his m. a. and ph. d. here in 1950 and 1953. i am delighted to be here! today, i would like to discuss the implications of artificial intelligence ( ai ) for workers and the labor market, more generally. 1 i will discuss ai's potential to boost productivity, offer a framework to consider which jobs will be most affected by ai, and consider ai's effect on aggregate employment. i hope this discussion will be informative for many of you in the audience, especially those of you who will be entering the job market in the next few years. however, before discussing ai, i think it will be helpful to first set the stage by reviewing how the labor market has evolved in recent years and where it is today. view of the labor market on the eve of the pandemic, the labor market was quite strong. the unemployment rate was flirting with historical lows, having fallen to 3. 5 percent in the fall of 2019 from an average of 4. 7 percent between 2014 and 2019. jobs were relatively plentiful, with 12 openings for every 10 unemployed job seekers. then, the labor market changed dramatically in the first few months of the pandemic when economies around the world shut down. by april 2020, nearly one out of every seven u. s. workers was unemployed. the u. s. labor market lost more than 20 million jobs in just two months. to put that into perspective, that is nearly four times the total number of jobs in ohio. u. s. workers and employers, with the support of timely and extraordinary policy action, proved to be resilient and innovative. as we know from the national bureau of economic research's business cycle dating committee, the pandemic recession was the shortest on record, even though it was the deepest since the great depression. by mid - 2020, the economy was growing again. and grow it did. the labor market roared back, gaining 25 million jobs in the three years from its low point in april 2020. demand for labor outpaced supply such that by mid2022 there were