What happened to the artificial-intelligence revolution?
So far the technology has had almost no economic impact
Move to San Francisco and it is hard not to be swept up by mania over artificial intelligence (AI). Advertisements tell you how the tech will revolutionise your workplace. In bars people speculate about when the world will “get AGI”, or when machines will become more advanced than humans. The five big tech firms—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, all of which have either headquarters or outposts nearby—are investing vast sums. This year they are budgeting an estimated $400bn for capital expenditures, mostly on AI-related hardware, and for research and development.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “A sequence of zeroes”
Finance & economics July 6th 2024
From the July 6th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Finance and economics
China’s last boomtowns show rapid growth is still possible
All it takes is for the state to work with the market
What the war on tourism gets wrong
Visitors are a boon, if managed wisely
Why investors are unwise to bet on elections
Turning a profit from political news is a lot harder than it looks
Revisiting the work of Donald Harris, father of Kamala
The combative Marxist economist focused on questions related to growth
Donald Trump wants a weaker dollar. What are his options?
All come with their own drawbacks
Why is Xi Jinping building secret commodity stockpiles?
Vast new holdings of grain, natural gas and oil suggest trouble ahead