With every year, artificial intelligence becomes increasingly advanced. Innovators are creating and refining applications for AI in industries ranging from health care to transportation. Many economists are optimistic about this developing technology, viewing it as a means of finally escaping the disappointing productivity growth of the past few decades. Other observers are concerned, anticipating massive job loss and disruption. So today’s interview with Darrell M. West explores the impending application of artificial intelligence in the economy, as well as the difficult public policy questions surrounding it.

Darrell is the vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, where he is also a senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation. He is the co-author, along with John Allen, of Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence.