InvestAI etc. - 7/2/2024

AI for investors, explained in simple terms. An open thread updated weekly.

Topics discussed this week:

Goldman Sachs: is AI worth the spend?

The looming capital-intensive knife fight

The spending imperative

AI ten predictions

The LIST (publicly traded)

Goldman Sachs: is AI worth the spend?

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SAMI >

Richard, you and I have been reading an expansive report from Goldman Sachs, “Gen AI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?”. There are many interesting parts but one that is worth mentioning here is an interview with MIT Professor Daron Acemoglu. Last month, Acemoglu penned an op-ed, “Don’t Believe the AI Hype” at Project Syndicate in which he stated that the benefits of AI would take longer to materialize than most people expect, and that these benefits will also be far smaller than most people expect.

Acemoglu gained notoriety in the early 2010s for, among other things, having co-authored the widely read book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. In the Goldman interview, Acemoglu says that AI will only boost productivity by 0.5% and GDP by 1% ove…