The economic data seems to depend on one’s point of view. I’m no economist and I certainly can’t prove to you that AI is having an economic impact. Its use grows quickly though: Statistics on AI market size
This is confusing two different concepts. Revenue generated by AI companies or by AI products and services is a different concept than AI’s ability to automate human labour or augment the productivity of human workers. By analogy, video games (another category of software) generate a lot of revenue, but automate no human labour and don’t augment the productivity of human workers.
LLMs haven’t automated any human jobs and the only scientific study I’ve seen on the topic found that LLMs slightly reduced worker productivity. (Mentioned in a footnote to the post I linked above.)
It found that consultants with AI access outperformed consultants without AI access, on most dimensions that were measured. Ethan has since participated in several other studies on the industry adoption of AI.
This is confusing two different concepts. Revenue generated by AI companies or by AI products and services is a different concept than AI’s ability to automate human labour or augment the productivity of human workers. By analogy, video games (another category of software) generate a lot of revenue, but automate no human labour and don’t augment the productivity of human workers.
LLMs haven’t automated any human jobs and the only scientific study I’ve seen on the topic found that LLMs slightly reduced worker productivity. (Mentioned in a footnote to the post I linked above.)
If you’re interested in studies that evaluate the impact of LLMs on productivity, I can recommend the blog of Ethan Mollick. For example this post from September 2023: https://​​www.oneusefulthing.org/​​p/​​centaurs-and-cyborgs-on-the-jagged
It found that consultants with AI access outperformed consultants without AI access, on most dimensions that were measured. Ethan has since participated in several other studies on the industry adoption of AI.