Chief Economist of Google, Fabien Curto Millet has enlightened that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can create potential opportunities in a varied economy, creating new tasks in the economy
He said in a recent article he published that “the world is full of latent markets, where there is demand for a product or service but no supply or the converse; AI can unearth many of these markets.
“Because of this, the potential of AI is immense – but its realization is not automatic, sound policy will make the difference between success and a missed or delayed opportunity,” Millet said.
Projections of the economic impact that can reasonably be expected from AI range widely. Nobel laureate, Daron Acemoglu, estimates a cumulative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) uplift in the US of 1.1 percent on a 10-year timeframe, whereas Goldman Sachs quantifies a 15 percent boost from full adoption of the technology.
“The chasm between these two estimates adds up to about $4 trillion at current US GDP levels,” he stated.
Acemoglu’s estimate focuses on only those tasks that are cost-effective to automate today, whereas Goldman anticipates more widespread adoption over time and incorporates gains from the reallocation of workers and the creation of new tasks in the economy.
Read also: Adopt human right approach to cybersecurity-CSOs tell African leaders
“The dynamic reallocation of people into new roles can be a powerful growth driver,” Goldman said.
MIT economist, David Autor and colleagues found that 85 percent employment growth over the last 80 years is explained by the technology-driven creation of new positions. But is it reasonable to bank on the emergence of these new tasks going forward?
“The waves of digitalization so far provide one reason for optimism; tech often creates new markets.
I should know; the company I work for, Google, derives almost the entirety of its revenues from markets that did not exist 30 years ago (search, video streaming and cloud).
“These services now support hundreds of billions in economic value annually for US businesses, non-profits, publishers, creators and developers. This is by no means an isolated example.
“While flea markets have existed for centuries, eBay’s digitalization of the concept enabled the matching of demand and supply on a completely different level. The same is true for Amazon’s everything store (s) contributions to retail in general. Uber revolutionized transportation and delivery. The list goes on,” Autor added.
