Artificial Intelligence and Productivity

Productivity Puzzles

Will artificial intelligence rescue us from the productivity demise? If humans cannot get productivity up, can intelligent machines bring about the productivity revival? While certainly not the only digital technology that has come along in the past few decades, AI perhaps speaks to our imagination more than all those before it as it directly impacts on the daily activities of many listeners to this podcast. This episode analyses various facets of AI, including generative AI, its potential applications, estimations of productivity gains, drivers and barriers to adoption, labour market effects, and the UK's strategic response.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

• Erik Brynjolfsson, Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), and Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
• Tera Allas, Director of Research and Economics at McKinsey & Company, UK.
• Lea Samek, Economist at the OECD Science, Technology & Innovation Directorate.

For more information on the topic:

• Martin Neil Baily, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Anton Korinek (2023), Machines of mind: The case for an AI-powered productivity boom, Brookings.

• McKinsey & Company (2023), The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier, June.

• Jan Hatzius et al. (2023), The Potentially Large Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Economic Growth, Goldman Sachs.

• Flavio Calvino and Luca Fontanelli (2023), A portrait of AI adopters across countries: Firm characteristics, assets’ complementarities and productivity, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2023/02.

• Andrew Green and Lucas Lamb (2023), The supply, demand and characteristics of the AI workforce across OECD countries, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 287.

• Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (2023), A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation, London, March.

• The human capital behind AI : Jobs and skills demand from online job postings | OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers | OECD iLibrary (oecd-ilibrary.org)

• Calvino, F., Samek, L., Squicciarini, M., and Morris, C. (2022), Identifying and characterising AI adopters: A novel approach based on big data, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers, No. 2022/06, OECD Publishing, Paris.

• Samek, L., Squicciarini, M., and Cammeraat, E. (2021), The human capital behind AI: Jobs and skills demand from online job postings, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers, No. 120, OECD Publishing, Paris.

About Productivity Puzzles:

Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.