Nobel economist doubts AI can restore 1980s-style productivity boom

Economist Christopher Pissarides argued that artificial intelligence is unlikely to return Western economies to the rapid productivity growth seen in the 1980s and 1990s. In an interview with Bloomberg News and in remarks at the Royal Economic Society conference in Newcastle, the 2010 Nobel laureate said there is little evidence so far that AI is lifting output across the economy. He said as many as four in 10 jobs in the United States and Britain, including work in nursing and hospitality, are not meaningfully exposed to AI. That, he argued, would make it difficult for gains in sectors such as finance to lift overall growth to the levels forecast by technology executives and some policymakers.