Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do support the idea of a federal advisory council, as all folks here today have testified. This is moving very fast. It poses new opportunities and new challenges. Bringing in top expertise in an advisory role is an excellent idea. Of the three topics I would most address, one is how to use the technology to augment labour rather than automate it.

Human Resources committee  It's difficult, because it's moving so fast, as Ms. Janssen and others noted. It would be helpful, I think, to involve the private sector, in order to try to get a sense. Even in the U.S.—which is not the world's leader in information collection, by any stretch of the imagination—we now do large surveys on who's using AI and what they're doing with it.

Human Resources committee  I think it's a very big issue, and depending on the regulatory regime, I don't think privacy is guaranteed in what can and cannot be tracked. Our phones are full-time surveillance devices that not only know all the things we do but report that information to third parties for money.

Human Resources committee  That's perfect. Good afternoon.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for having me. My name is David Autor, and I am the Ford professor of economics at the MIT Department of Economics, and also co-director of the MIT “shaping the future of work” initiative. I am honoured to speak with you today about my research on artificial intelligence and the future of work, and I apologize for my cold.