A detailed, affordable plan for transition insurance in the AI era
Brookings (institute research) · 30 Oct 2026
Read original sourceOpen accessNot peer reviewed
Where this sits in the debate
- Will AI destroy more jobs than it creates? · its finding: it depends (why studies differ)
- Will AI widen inequality?
- Should governments act on AI now? · its finding supports the claim (why studies differ)
Direction of the finding as read from the abstract by an AI model (AI-written).
Key takeaway AI-written
This policy paper sets out a detailed plan for transition insurance for workers whose jobs are disrupted by AI, motivated by growing US public concern about AI. It notes that about half of both Republicans and Democrats said in 2025 that AI made them more concerned than excited.
Source excerpt
Artificial intelligence (AI) holds enormous promise. Properly deployed, with suitable guardrails against its risks, AI is likely to raise living standards by enhancing productivity growth and to lead to new scientific discoveries, the development of new cures for all kinds of disease, and the creation of new products and services. Yet even as China accelerates efforts to develop and diffuse AI throughout its economy, public attitudes in the United States are markedly more wary. In 2025, nearly equal shares of Republicans (50%) and Democrats (51%) said that the growing use of AI in daily life made them more concerned than excited. 1 This apprehension is reflected in broad opposition to local AI data center construction, which 71% of Americans opposed in a 2026 Gallup poll, including majorities of Republicans, independents, and Democrats, and in concern that AI can enable misinformation, fraud, and other misuse and may disrupt jobs and careers. 2 Since that poll, concerns about AI’s potential existential risks have intensified, following public warnings from current and former employees of leading AI companies that current AI systems have insufficient oversight. 3 I focus here, however, on just the job-displacement fears, which are likely to persist because AI use nonetheless will continue to grow even if data center construction and AI model development in the U.S. are slowed or halted. Even recent warnings that AI could take over the internet seem unlikely, by themselves, to halt AI adoption. AI is also being deployed to strengthen cyber defenses, and surveys document its growing use by businesses and individuals. 4 So the job threat will remain. In July 2026, over 1,000 economists signed an online petition organized by Stanford’s Erik Brynjolfsson urging action to deal with the threat of future labor market disruption posed by AI. 5 Even if those worries eventually prove unfounded as they so far appear to be—and even if over the longer run our economy and workers w
About this publication
Lab or institute research, not peer reviewed. A report or blog post published by an AI lab or research institute on its own site. It has not been through independent peer review, and the publisher may have a stake in the findings.
- Published
- 2026 (recently)
- Citations
- Not recorded for this source
Citation counts come from OpenAlex; none are recorded for this source — absence of a count is not absence of citations.
Related by theme, not necessarily by method or conclusion.
- The Effects of Generative AI on High Skilled Work: Evidence from Three Field Experiments with Software Developers
SSRN · 2024 - GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models
arXiv · 2023 - Experimental evidence on the productivity effects of generative artificial intelligence
Science · 2023 - The simple macroeconomics of AI
Economic Policy · 2024
Overview assembled automatically from collected metadata. How this site is built.