FT: Stanford Prof Erik Brynjolfsson – This decade could be the best of all-time, or the worst
In this exclusive FT interview with Stanford professor and AI expert Erik Brynjolfsson, he explores the transformative potential of generative AI on productivity, jobs, and societal structures. Reflecting on historical parallels, Brynjolfsson compares generative AI to electricity, emphasising its pervasive influence, rapid advancements, and the emergence of complementary innovations. As the technology gains momentum, Brynjolfsson anticipates substantial productivity growth in the 2020s, challenging projections and raising critical considerations about responsible governance and ethical use to shape a future marked by shared prosperity and technological augmentation.
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By Tej Parikh
The Stanford professor on what generative AI will mean for productivity, jobs and the society of the future
*This is part of a series, "", featuring conversations between top FT commentators and leading economists
The potential of generative artificial intelligence dominated discussions at Davos this month. Business leaders and policymakers are wondering if last year's hype over large language models (LLMs), which fuelled a stock market rally, will actually be matched by productivity gains. This year — as the technology is increasingly adopted and commercialised — we will start to see its impact on our economies, societies and institutions.
Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor, author and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, is an authority on gen-AI's potential impact on productivity. He was among the first researchers to measure the productivity contributions of information technology. One of his mentors was Robert Solow, the Nobel Prize winner, who passed away last month.
In this interview he discusses Solow's influence on his work, how gen AI ranks relative to historic technologies, and his concepts of the productivity "J-curve" and the "Turing trap".
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