[FOR INTERNAL REVIEW] Mike Spence - What a Nobel Laureate Thinks AI Does to Education
Episode notes
The theory of labor market signaling changed how economists think about education, hiring, and information. Fifty years later, AI is rewriting the conditions that made the theory work.
In this episode, Ben sits down with Mike Spence, Nobel laureate and former dean at both Harvard and Stanford, to explore what AI means for signaling, growth, education, and the structure of markets.
Topics covered:
- The CV screening war: how AI-generated applications met AI-powered filters, and why the net result may be less signal rather than more
- Why AI is better understood as a continuation of the internet than a rupture
- What AI does to the signaling value of elite degrees
- AI as tutor: the most powerful educational tool ever built, and why using it as a substitute for your own thinking is problematic
- Supply chains as an early proof of concept: why volatile, complex environments are where AI shows its clearest value
- Why the models economists built for a stable world need to be rebuilt
About Mike Spence: Mike Spence is a Nobel laureate in economics, awarded the 2001 prize for his work on information asymmetry and labor market signaling. He served as dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and later as dean of Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and has written extensively on economic growth, development, and the implications of AI for advanced and emerging economies.
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