expertise

shapingwork.mit.edu

Free

Does AI Assistance Enhance or Erode Expertise? Evidence from a Three-Month Field Experiment in Patent Drafting

Authors

David Autor, Tanya Rodchenko, Josh Martin, Zanna Iscenko, Scott Strand, David Pearl, Melissa Ferere

Venue

MIT Shaping the Future of Work working paper (not peer-reviewed)

Published

2026-09-01

Working paper (September 2026) from the MIT Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work. In a pre-registered randomized trial with 133 practicing patent lawyers at 11 U.S. law firms, AI drafting help raised work quality, with larger gains for junior lawyers; on a later task done without AI, the advantage appeared only among senior lawyers. Not peer-reviewed.

shapingwork.mit.eduAdded Oct 7, 20260 opens

bcantrill.dtrace.org

Free

Fool's Expertise

Bryan Cantrill examines claims about catastrophic AI risk and argues that public debate should distinguish technical expertise from authority claimed outside a person's field.

bcantrill.dtrace.orgAdded Sep 28, 20261 opens

b2bdaily.com

Free

How Can AI Enhance Rather Than Erode Human Expertise? (B2B Daily)

An article on using AI to support skilled work instead of hollowing out the know-how people build over a career.

Why I recommend it: Opinion piece from a trade site — good prompts for thinking, not research findings.

b2bdaily.comAdded Sep 24, 20260 opens