With the leading ten AI companies comprising one third of the value of the S&P and none showing a profit plus the threat they pose to our jobs, let alone humanity, we best keep careful track of the industry. My former graduate student, Seth Benzell, is one of our nation's top AI experts. Seth discusses AI's so-called scaling law, the problem of too little data to fit the industry's parameters mystically being cured by double descent, and the bitter lesson. Seth also talks us through how much money AI can save and, therefore, make by replacing humans in accomplishing existing tasks.
Seth is an assistant professor of Management Science at the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University. He's a Digital Fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy as well as a Digital Fellow at the Stanford HAI Digital Economy LabHe received a B.A. in economics and a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Tulane University before earning his economics PhD at Boston University. Seth's website is https://www.sethgbenzell.com/. He works on the economics of digitalization, including automation, networks, and information systems. Seth and his co-host, Andrey Fradkin have a terrific podcast, called Justified Posteriors, that focuses on AI.
