If you thought that venerable institutions like MIT and Nobel winner professors only
produced dense research papers with lots of mathematical formulas, you are in for a
shock. Two 2024 Nobel laureates have partnered with Boston University’s Gutter
Studios to transform complex economic arguments about AI and inequality into a
visually compelling mini-comic—making urgent truths about technology’s unequal
impact accessible to everyone. In the process, they have made an audacious
advance in research communication, pioneering a novel approach to scientific writing
that bridges the intellectual chasm between researchers and the general populace.
Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, along with their collaborator James Robinson,
won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences “for studies of how institutions
are formed and affect prosperity.” Their groundbreaking mini-comic Power and
Progress: The Mini-Comic! challenges the widespread techno-optimism surrounding
AI by exposing a darker reality: without deliberate intervention, AI threatens to
deepen inequalities by empowering elites at the expense of workers whose jobs are
being automated. MIT’s ‘Power and Progress’ mini-comic creatively explains AI’s
societal impact and economic inequalities using engaging illustrations and dialogue
A Bold Communication Strategy
The mini-comic, developed in collaboration with Boston University’s Visual Narrative
MFA program and created by acclaimed cartoonist Joel Christian Gill, transforms
complex economic arguments into an engaging dialogue between Polly, a robot, and
Daisy, a historian. This innovative partnership between MIT’s Stone Center on
Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work and BU demonstrates how institutions are
rethinking knowledge transfer in the digital age.​
As Acemoglu and Johnson explain in their 2023 book Power and Progress, “the
direction of technology and who benefits depend on the choices of those controlling
it, not some predetermined path of technology we can’t control.” This central thesis
forms the philosophical backbone of the comic, which uses historical
examples—from Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon to the Industrial Revolution—to
demonstrate that technological progress has never automatically led to shared
prosperity.​
​
History’s Cautionary Tale
The comic revisits Jeremy Bentham’s 1791 panopticon, a circular prison design
symbolizing oppressive surveillance. As the comic illustrates, “Bentham’s vision was
that surveillance in factories would induce workers to labor harder, without needing to
pay them higher wages to motivate greater effort.” The design was quickly applied to
factories, enriching owners at the expense of workers. One weaver quoted in 1835
laments: “No man would like to work in a power-loom, they do not like it, there is
such clattering and noise it would almost make some men mad.”​
This historical parallel demonstrates that promises of efficiency and progress have
consistently been used to justify systems concentrating wealth among elites while
degrading working conditions for the majority. The comic emphasizes: “most people
around the globe today are better off than our ancestors because citizens and
workers in early industrial societies organized, challenged elite-dominated choices
about technology, and forced ways of sharing the gains from technological
improvements more equitably.”​
The AI Dilemma: Automation Versus Augmentation
The comic explores what Acemoglu calls “so-so automation”—technologies that
displace workers without generating significant productivity gains. Examples include
automated customer service systems that frustrate customers while eliminating jobs,
or self-checkout kiosks that shift work to consumers without improving efficiency.​
The comic illustrates: “A.I. could automate jobs, just like the computer revolution did
for jobs in data entry, customer service, and administration.” More troublingly, “it
might contribute to job market polarization where middle-skill jobs are automated,
‘hollowing out’ middle-skill opportunities and leaving more workers in low-paying
jobs.”​
Crucially, the comic contrasts this with pro-worker technology. Between 1945 and
1975, wages rose for workers at all skill levels in the United States. “Electrification in
the US raised productivity while creating plenty of new jobs and new opportunities for
workers.” Similarly, “pioneers invented computers as a tool to augment human
intelligence and creativity, not replace it,” creating “new tasks that increase demand
for workers with expertise.”​
​
However, “from 1980, the digital revolution has boosted the earnings of highly
educated workers and squeezed the middle class,” with “real wages for people with
only a high school education” barely increasing “in the past 40 years.”​​
The Path Forward: Pro-Worker AI
The mini-comic explores what Acemoglu and Johnson call “pro-worker
AI”—technologies designed to augment rather than replace human capabilities. “Pro-
worker A.I. could be steered towards creating new tasks, providing better information,
and building platforms of collaboration.”​​
However, as the comic warns, “this is not the direction we are headed in.” The
current trajectory is heavily biased toward automation and labor displacement rather
than augmentation. The comic explains: “confronting the prevailing vision and
wresting the direction of technology away from the control of a narrow elite may be
even more difficult today than it was in 19th-century Britain and America. But it is no
less essential.”​​
Acemoglu and Johnson’s recommendations include rebalancing tax incentives that
favor automation over human labor, investing in research prioritizing human-
complementary technologies, strengthening worker organizing and collective
bargaining, and creating regulatory frameworks ensuring AI development serves
broad social interests.​
Why a Comic?
The choice to adapt economic arguments into comic form reflects MIT’s recognition
that academic papers alone cannot reach the audiences who need this message
most. Cartoonist Joel Christian Gill emphasizes that comics have “the unique ability
to manipulate meaning by changing the two fundamental components of words and
pictures and merging them together,” making abstract concepts tangible and policy
arguments emotionally resonant.​
This collaboration between MIT economists and BU’s Visual Narrative program
represents what scholars call an “explosion of comics” being used for education and
social commentary. Comics are increasingly recognized as a sophisticated medium
capable of addressing complex, adult-oriented subjects.​
The comic’s central message resonates urgently as AI capabilities rapidly expand:
“We need counter-balancing forces which promote the interests of workers and push
back on tech powers.” Yet the comic also offers hope. History demonstrates that
when workers organize, when democratic institutions function, and when technology
is deliberately steered toward augmenting rather than replacing human capabilities,
shared prosperity is possible. By translating their Nobel Prize-winning insights into an
accessible comic format, Acemoglu and Johnson have shown that the future of AI is
not predetermined—and that we retain the power to shape it.​
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