Today, the most pressing issue is a standard one: what level of productivity growth should societies aim for? History offers us a clear warning. The Industrial Revolution in Britain was accompanied by deep social shocks. In the last decades of the 18th century, wages stagnated, and in some cases even declined, and it took a long time for living standards to improve. Amid the rapid boom of artificial intelligence, the economic question is no longer just 'what will happen?' but has become more profound: 'what do we want to happen?'. Since the emergence of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, economists have been busy assessing the impact of generative AI on productivity. In contrast, they have faced...
