MIT has launched the new “Initiative for the Digital Economy” to address the impact of existing and emerging digital technologies. The initiative’s three primary objectives are to analyze the potential of digital technologies to change businesses, the economy, and society; to engage students and faculty in programs related to the digital revolution; and to make practical recommendations to industry leaders and policymakers regarding the digital economy.

The initiative is organized by the school’s Center for Digital Business (CDB) and is led by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andy McAfee, the CDB’s director and principal research scientist, respectively.

As the Internet continues to transition from the “connected world of PCs, browsers and Web servers, to the hyperconnected world of mobile devices, cloud computing and broadband wireless networks,” it inches closer to the emergence of a digital economy.

“The physical and the digital now blend into each other over porous boundaries, as people, institutions and things are all becoming interconnected. A 21st century digital economy is indeed now emerging in this hyperconnected, inclusive, and increasingly smart world,” writes guest contributor Irving Wladawsky-Berger for the Wall Street Journal.

While “technology has been replacing workers and improving productivity ever since the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 18th century,” the current advances in technology might be moving too fast for people to keep up. And as more machines become equipped with artificial intelligence, that challenge heightens.

“Many workers are learning to co-evolve with our intelligent machines, and as has been the case in the past, they will be ready for whatever new jobs are created. But, our fear is that this time is different and the long predicted era of technological unemployment is finally upon us,” notes Wladawsky-Berger.

“We are transitioning to a digital economy whose vast implications are not well understood. Perhaps, as has been the case in the past, we lack the imagination to properly perceive the future, and once more our technologies will give rise to new industries and jobs that we can barely being to anticipate today. On the other hand, there may truly not be enough good jobs to go around, a situation with serious economic and societal implications.”

These are the types of issues that will be addressed by the Initiative for the Digital Economy. According to the online announcement: “While technology is advancing rapidly, organizations and skills advance slowly. What’s more, the gap between swiftly evolving technology and the slower pace of human development will grow quickly in the coming decades, as exponential improvements in artificial intelligence, robotics, networks, analytics, and digitization affect more and more of the economy and society. Inventing effective organizations and institutions for the digital economy is the grand challenge for our time.”