Book contents
- Prospects for Economic Growth in the United States
- Prospects for Economic Growth in the United States
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Overview
- Part II Labor and Economic Growth
- Part III Implications of Technology for Growth
- 5 “The $64,000 Question”: Living in the Age of Technological Possibility or Showing Possibility’s Age?
- 6 Artificial Intelligence Technologies and Aggregate Growth Prospects
- Part IV The Effects of Fiscal Policy on Growth
- Part V Special Topics on Economic Growth
- Part VI A Concluding Perspective
- Index
- References
6 - Artificial Intelligence Technologies and Aggregate Growth Prospects
from Part III - Implications of Technology for Growth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2021
- Prospects for Economic Growth in the United States
- Prospects for Economic Growth in the United States
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Overview
- Part II Labor and Economic Growth
- Part III Implications of Technology for Growth
- 5 “The $64,000 Question”: Living in the Age of Technological Possibility or Showing Possibility’s Age?
- 6 Artificial Intelligence Technologies and Aggregate Growth Prospects
- Part IV The Effects of Fiscal Policy on Growth
- Part V Special Topics on Economic Growth
- Part VI A Concluding Perspective
- Index
- References
Summary
Artificial Intelligence Technologies (AITs) are already in large-scale use in two kinds of applications: consumer–product matching engines and user interfaces. AITs are core production technologies with hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue that involve no substitution of machine for human work at the task level; instead, there is capital deepening, not factor substitution, at the task level. The alternative – system-level substitution – is driven as much or more by output characteristics as by cost. With respect to long-run factor demand implications, there is no good reason to see AITs as different from other information and communication technologies (ICT) – they work at the system level to slowly change to a more capital-intensive, less labor-intensive, and more human-capital-intensive form of production and their early diffusion seems similar. Their largest impact is in a narrow range of industries and functions, notably consumer-oriented mass-market production, distribution, and marketing. Examining the strengths and weaknesses of AIT-based production illuminates both the narrowness and the depth of ICT application.
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- Prospects for Economic Growth in the United States , pp. 132 - 170Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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