--- title: Charter 30: Erik Brynjolfsson description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6959417/charter-30-erik-brynjolfsson/ author: Jacob Clemente article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-03-22T16:05:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-28T07:21:48.620Z og:title: Charter 30: Erik Brynjolfsson og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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Time charter # Charter 30: Erik Brynjolfsson  by [Jacob Clemente](/author/jacob-clemente/) Senior Reporter, AI & Work Mar 22, 2024 4:05 PM CUT  Art: Charter  by [Jacob Clemente](/author/jacob-clemente/) Senior Reporter, AI & Work Mar 22, 2024 4:05 PM CUT ## Professor, Stanford _Read the full list of Charter 30 honorees_ [_here_](https://www.charterworks.com/tag/charter-30/ "undefined"), _and learn more about Charter Pro_ [_here_](https://www.charterworks.com/pro/ "undefined")_._ [Brynjolfsson](https://www.brynjolfsson.com/ "undefined") stands out as a pivotal voice on digital technologies and their impact on businesses and the economy. In his provocative [essay](https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/151/2/272/110622/The-Turing-Trap-The-Promise-amp-Peril-of-Human "undefined") “The Turing Trap: The Promise & Peril of Human-Like Artificial Intelligence,” he warns about the excess incentives for automation over augmentation when it comes to AI. He argues that a focus on augmentation isn’t only better for workers; it’s better for progress. “Augmenting humans with technology opens an endless frontier of new abilities and opportunities,” he writes. “The set of tasks that humans and machines can do together is undoubtedly much larger than those humans can do alone.” Brynjolfsson’s recent work looks at [AI adoption patterns](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jems.12576 "undefined") across US businesses and the performance improvements from generative AI among [customer support agents](https://www.nber.org/papers/w31161 "undefined"). When it comes to the broader economy, Brynjolfsson expects to see an “[AI-powered productivity boom](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/machines-of-mind-the-case-for-an-ai-powered-productivity-boom/ "undefined")” from the technology. “General-purpose technologies like electricity, the steam engine, early computers, often take a decade or more to translate into significant productivity gains because of all the changes you have to make in business processes and rescaling,” Brynjolfsson [told](https://fortune.com/2023/09/26/ai-economist-erik-brynjolfsson-productivity-boom-labor/ "undefined") Fortune last year. “This time it’s definitely happening faster.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6959417/charter-30-erik-brynjolfsson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6959417/charter-30-erik-brynjolfsson/"},"headline":"Charter 30: Erik Brynjolfsson","datePublished":"2024-03-22T16:05:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-28T07:21:48.620Z","description":"Our list of the leaders, thinkers, and innovators shaping the future of work.","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6959417/charter-30-erik-brynjolfsson/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc06626047847be41/698a550ad07533a50ae709b6/charter-30-brynjolfsson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob Clemente","jobTitle":"Senior Reporter, AI & Work","url":"https://time.com/author/jacob-clemente/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc06626047847be41/698a550ad07533a50ae709b6/charter-30-brynjolfsson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-30-brynjolfsson.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6959417/charter-30-erik-brynjolfsson/","name":"Charter 30: Erik Brynjolfsson"}}]}] ```