Artificial intelligence and its growing impact on markets, jobs, and business strategy will be the focus of an upcoming public lecture at the Institute for Advanced Study.
John Cassidy, a longtime economics writer for The New Yorker, will present “A.I. and the Crisis of Capitalism: A Historical Approach” on Friday, April 10, at 5:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall.
The talk draws on his 2025 book, Capitalism and Its Critics, and will examine how artificial intelligence may trigger a new phase of economic disruption — and how businesses and policymakers might respond.
For business leaders, the impacts of AI are already underway. Cassidy recently reported in his column that investor reaction to AI has erased “hundreds of billions of dollars of value” across sectors as companies confront the possibility that core functions — particularly in white-collar industries — could be automated or fundamentally reshaped.
Enterprise software firms, financial services companies, and other knowledge-based sectors have been especially exposed, reflecting concern not just about efficiency gains but about structural change. Market swings tied to AI expectations highlight how quickly valuations — and business outlooks — can shift as the technology evolves.
At the company level, Cassidy points to a widening divide in how AI is being deployed. Some firms are using it to augment workers and improve productivity; others are using it to cut headcount or intensify oversight. That split underscores a central question for executives: whether AI will ultimately expand human capability or displace it.
Cassidy’s lecture places that question in a longer historical context. In Capitalism and Its Critics, he examines earlier moments when new technologies transformed the economy, focusing on how those shifts were experienced — and challenged — by workers, thinkers, and policymakers.
He writes about the rise of the factory system in 18th-century England, where mechanization drove major increases in output while reorganizing labor around strict schedules and centralized workplaces. The system delivered efficiency and growth, but also introduced new forms of discipline and inequality that became flashpoints for criticism.
Looking back on that transformation, historian Eric Hobsbawm described industrialization as “probably the most important event in world history, at any rate since the invention of agriculture and cities.”
Cassidy’s account also follows capitalism’s expansion beyond national borders, including its connection to global trade and corporate power. Early multinational enterprises such as the British East India Company drew sustained criticism for exploitative practices and market control. As one contemporary observer wrote, “The roguery practised in this department is beyond imagination.”
Across these examples, Cassidy emphasizes a recurring pattern: technological and economic advances generate substantial growth, but also concentrate power and create pressures on labor markets. Those tensions, he suggests, are not anomalies but built-in features of how capitalism evolves.
That perspective carries direct implications for the current AI moment. Rather than viewing artificial intelligence as an unstoppable external force, Cassidy points to a growing body of economic thinking that stresses agency — the idea that policy choices, corporate decisions, and market structures will shape how the technology is deployed and who benefits from it.
For businesses, that means the outcome is not predetermined. Decisions about hiring, training, capital investment, and technology integration will influence whether AI acts primarily as a productivity enhancer or a labor-reducing tool. At the same time, broader policy debates — including taxation, regulation, and worker protections — are likely to play an increasing role in defining the competitive landscape.
Cassidy has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1995 and writes the magazine’s regular economics column, “The Financial Page.” Over the years, he has covered globalization, financial crises, inequality, and technological change, often focusing on how large economic shifts affect both markets and workers.
His previous books include How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities and Dot.Con: How America Lost Its Mind and Money in the Internet Era.
The April 10 lecture is presented through the Dr. S. T. Lee Fund for Historical Studies. Registration is required. More information is available at ias.edu.
