Economics, Disrupted by Diane Coyle

But my optimism proved to be misplaced, because digital technology would soon leap ahead with the arrival of generative AI, which was made available to the public in the form of ChatGPT in late 2022. These new tools pose entirely different policy challenges, ranging from the huge scale barriers to market entry (given the investment requirements) to the explosion of toxic content online.

Nonetheless, my central argument from 2020 still stands. Like previous waves of digital technology, AI poses a challenge to economic analysis. Economists disagree widely when it comes to AI’s likely impact on jobs and productivity, the implications for business organization, and questions of how to analyze the convergence of competition, trade, industrial, and security policies. What was true six years ago remains true today. The onus is on the economics profession to equip policymakers for the impending transformation.