Expertise

Technology and work; labor economics; AI ethics; AI governance; entrepreneurship

At the Keough School

Yong Suk Lee is associate professor of technology, economy, and global affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is a faculty affiliate of the Keough School’s McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business and a faculty fellow of the Keough School’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Pulte Institute for Global Development, and Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.

Courses

• Application, Ethics, and Governance of AI (undergraduate and master of global affairs course)
• Quantitative Analysis and Lab (master of global affairs course)
• Future of Labor (undergraduate and masters of global affairs course)

Research and Publications

Lee’s research focuses on the issues that intersect technology, labor, society, and governance. The new wave of technologies, such as AI and robotics, will have important implications for the economy. Lee’s most recent research examines how new technologies affect labor and firms, the societal and ethical implications of new technologies, and the governance of AI.

Recent Work

• Near to mid-term risks and opportunities of open-source generative AI.  (Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning 2024)
• Measuring urban quality and change through the detection of physical attributes of decay (Scientific Reports)
• The evolving impact of robots on jobs (Industrial and Labor Relations Review)
• When does AI pay off? AI-adoption intensity, complementary investments, and R&D strategy (Technovation)
• How does information about AI regulation affect managers’ choices? (Brookings)
• Does information about AI regulation change manager evaluation of ethical concerns and intent to adopt AI? (Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization)
• AI ethics, regulation & firm implications (Competition Policy International)
• In institutions we trust? Trust in government and the allocation of entrepreneurial intentions (Organization Science)

In the Media

• AI drive-thrus may be good for business. But not for the rest of us (CNN)
• Researchers find robots create jobs in long term (Robotics Business Review)
• The Dutch Tax Authority Was Felled by AI—What Comes Next? (IEEE Spectrum)

News

• AI can alert urban planners and policymakers to cities’ decay (Notre Dame News)
• AI can stunt or complement the labor market (Notre Dame News)
• Will a robot take my job? Notre Dame researcher says this view is overly pessimistic (Notre Dame News)

Biography

Lee is program chair in technology ethics for the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, he was a faculty member at Stanford University as the SK Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Prior to Stanford, he was assistant professor of economics at Williams College. He earned his PhD in economics from Brown University, a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Seoul National University. Lee also worked as a real estate development consultant and architecture designer as he transitioned from architecture to economics.