A Google executive and longtime labor economist argues that AI is more likely to reshape work than erase it, even as new forecasting data suggests a small but meaningful chance of far more severe disruption. The conversation pits Silicon Valley’s job-loss rhetoric against a slower, messier reality in which tasks automate faster than occupations, and policy failures may matter more than the technology itself.

Casey Newton and Ella Marciano open a new Platformer series with survey data showing AI adoption is highest among managers and top earners, while junior workers and administrative staff remain more skeptical of its benefits. A later conversation with Box CEO Aaron Levie argues that enterprise software will be remade by agents, but that most jobs will shift rather than disappear as human work moves to the harder, higher-value last mile.