As much as the media has been inundated with future of work stories that read like a sci-fi-like robot apocalypse, the future of work, in a very real sense, is already here. And what's really at stake is inequality. The real question for the future of work is not whether automation, robots, and AI will replace jobs--they will. And, if history is any guide, as-yet unimaginable jobs will be created. Over 60 percent of the jobs today didn't exist in 1940, according to MIT researchers.

Today, the practical synergies between economics and computer science are flourishing. We outline some of the many opportunities for the two disciplines to engage more deeply through the new MIT Schwarzman College of Computing." Nancy L. Rose is the Charles P. Kindleberger Professor of Applied Economics and head of the MIT Department of Economics, where her research and teaching focus on industrial organization, competition policy, and the economics of regulation. David Autor is the Ford Professor of Economics and co-director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future. His scholarship explores the labor market impacts of technological change and globalization, earnings inequality, and disability insurance and labor supply.

The spread of computers and the internet will put jobs in two categories. People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do. Andreessen has since repudiated this declaration, and taken a more optimistic stance. But economists, a more pessimistic bunch, are taking the possibility of this sort of bifurcated future more seriously. As machine-learning technology enjoys rapid progress, more top researchers are investigating the question of what work will look like in a world filled with computers that can replicate or surpass many of humanity's own mental abilities.

Economists are watching China very closely, and they're worried. Autor cites the possibility of a trade war between the U.S. and China or Mexico as one of the foremost concerns economists have in 2017. He also lists the possibility of a housing or financial crisis in China as a major concern for global markets that could upset demand worldwide. On the other hand, we probably shouldn't be worrying too much about robots stealing our jobs--yet. "I'm not yet convinced that we will face an unemployment problem created by AI," writes Autor.