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COVID-19 unraveled the workforce. Here's how to fix it

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Mary L. Gray |

TED2020

• July 2020

"We are living through the tech-enabled unraveling of full-time employment itself," says anthropologist Mary L. Gray. As the pandemic exposes and accelerates the shift to on-demand online labor, Gray takes us inside the jobs being created to solve the problems artificial intelligence can't handle -- and explains why our economic recovery hinges on extending essential benefits to all workers. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED business curator Corey Hajim, was recorded July 6, 2020.)

"We are living through the tech-enabled unraveling of full-time employment itself," says anthropologist Mary L. Gray. As the pandemic exposes and accelerates the shift to on-demand online labor, Gray takes us inside the jobs being created to solve the problems artificial intelligence can't handle -- and explains why our economic recovery hinges on extending essential benefits to all workers. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED business curator Corey Hajim, was recorded July 6, 2020.)

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speakers

Mary L. Gray

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Anthropologist and media scholar Mary L. Gray focuses on how the everyday use of technology (including artificial intelligence) transforms our lives -- for better and worse.

Corey Hajim

TED business curator

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Corey Hajim curates world-changing ideas from the brightest and boldest minds in business.

Mary L. Gray and Siddharth Suri | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019 | Book

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.