Artificial Intelligence : Economic Perspectives and Models

An essential companion for understanding the decision theory underlying artificial intelligence, how to model the impacts of artificial intelligence on economic growth, productivity, labour markets and inequality, and how to make sense of the debate whether AI poses an existential risk.

Is Artificial Intelligence a more significant invention than electricity? Will it result in explosive economic growth and unimaginable wealth for all, or will it cause the extinction of all humans? Artificial Intelligence: Economic Perspectives and Models provides a sober analysis of these questions from an economics perspective. It argues that to better understand the impact of AI on economic outcomes, we must fundamentally change the way we think about AI in relation to models of economic growth. It describes the progress that has been made so far and offers two ways in which current modelling can be improved: firstly, to incorporate the nature of AI as providing abilities that complement and/or substitute for labour, and secondly, to consider demand-side constraints. Outlining the decision-theory basis of both AI and economics, this book shows how this, and the incorporation of AI into economic models, can provide useful tools for safe, human-centered AI.