The more AI helps us learn, the more we lose the actual skills we need to build AI in the first place.
March 19, 2026
Original Paper
The Ironies of Automation: A Growth Theory Perspective
SSRN · 6307943
The Takeaway
This growth model identifies a 'skill paradox': as AI automates the tasks used in learning-by-doing, it destroys the expertise required to supervise the AI. Eventually, the economy may collapse because there are no longer enough high-ability humans who understand the systems they are supposed to be managing.
From the abstract
How does the interaction between AI and human capital accumulation affect economic growth? I study this question in an endogenous growth model where human capital accumulates through learning-by-doing. AI augments human learning but also automates the tasks through which learning occurs. Since AI itself needs human capital supervision, the ironies appear: automation erodes the very skills that AI development demands. I show that if AI augments learning only modestly, the economy converges to a c