Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity

A bold reinterpretation of economics and history revealing why technology does not inevitably lead to shared prosperity, and how we must redirect innovation in the age of AI to benefit all.

A thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make it clear that progress depends on the choices we make about technology. New ways of organizing production and communication can either serve the narrow interests of an elite or become the foundation for widespread prosperity. At no point has this been truer than the crossroads we face today. The transformation of work by digital technologies and AI could make life better for most people, or possibly much worse—depending on the economic, social, and political choices we make.

Through powerful, illuminating examples, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson fundamentally change how we see the world. The wealth generated by technological improvements in agriculture during the European Middle Ages was captured by the nobility and used to build grand cathedrals, while peasants remained on the edge of starvation. The first hundred years of industrialization in England delivered stagnant incomes for working people. The era of the 1950s through the 1970s, similar to today, was one of rapid technological advancement, yet also one of increasing prosperity for many.

Throughout the world today, digital technologies and artificial intelligence undermine jobs and democracy through excessive automation, massive data collection, and intrusive surveillance. It doesn’t have to be this way. Power and Progress demonstrates the path of technology was once—and may again—be brought under control. Cutting-edge technological advances can become empowering and democratizing tools, but not if all major decisions remain in the hands of a few hubristic tech leaders.

With their bold reinterpretation of economics and history, Acemoglu and Johnson provide the vision needed to redirect innovation so it again benefits most people.