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Tech leaders are all in on AI. The public, not so much
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In a recent survey conducted in the US, 80 per cent of firms reported that AI was having no impact on their productivity or employment.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: ADAM GLANZMAN/NYTIMES
David Streitfeld
Silicon Valley executives promise that artificial intelligence is going to radically change everyone’s life for the better, starting just a few minutes from now. AI is described as the new electricity. It’s even bigger than fire. Don’t bother saving money for retirement because everyone will be rich rich rich.
Your grandparents heard pretty much the same thing. The creators of a new technology have always sold it as producing a fundamental transformation of human existence. The radio was touted as bringing “perpetual peace on earth”. Television was supposed to arouse so much empathy for different cultures that it would end war. Cable television would educate the masses and lead to widespread enlightenment.
