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The AI Productivity Paradox

The AI Productivity Paradox

The impact of AI is turning up everywhere except the productivity statistics

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Grace Blakeley
Jul 14, 2025
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The AI Productivity Paradox
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I read an article in Bloomberg last week entitled AI Hype Is Proving to Be a Solow's Paradox. And it got me thinking about how bizarrely inefficient and unproductive modern capitalism has become.

First, we need to talk about AI and Solow’s Paradox. In the 1980s, after decades of technological advancement and the widespread adoption of computers, economists were asking a simple but important question: why hasn’t any of this made us more productive? Robert Solow, a Nobel laureate, put it bluntly: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”

Robert Solow. Credit: https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/ai-productivity-robert-solows-paradox-chatgpt-impact-mit-automation-jobs-workplace-efficiency-future-of-work-economy-11750936770085.html

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