Stanford's Erik Brynjolfsson and leading economists pivot research to focus on AI's labor and productivity impacts

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/06/15/meet-the-worlds-top-ai-pilled-economists

@JimPethokoukis @TheEconomist "This year the NBER is likely to host more conferences on health care than on AI."

This is such a funny sentence. Like health care is ~20% of GDP and AI is ~0.8%.

@besttrousers @JimPethokoukis @TheEconomist the delta between things we want to know and things we already know is much higher in AI versus healthcare though

@besttrousers @JimPethokoukis @TheEconomist It is also way too early to be publishing about the impact of AI!

@colinmort @besttrousers @TheEconomist this chart suggests publishing a few words about AI is not the worst idea

@JimPethokoukis @besttrousers @TheEconomist Are existing fields of economics, not equipped to study the impacts of increased capital expenditures?

@JimPethokoukis @TheEconomist Honored to see our co-founder @erikbryn top @TheEconomist's list of leading academics on AI's economic impact.

"Some academic economists have seized the AI opportunity". Erik has been one of them for a long time. Excited for what's ahead.

@PradyuPrasad @JimPethokoukis @TheEconomist Is it? I want to know lots of stuff about healthcare (I would like to Not Die)!

I don't think either of these deltas are very measurable?

@colinmort @JimPethokoukis @TheEconomist Y=A K^alpla L^(1-alpha), case closed.

@besttrousers @JimPethokoukis @TheEconomist This is such a funny sentence. Like candles is 20% of the GDP and electricity is ~0.8%.

@JimPethokoukis @TheEconomist 'AI-pilled' simply means your thesis matches where capital is already flowing. Contrarians get tenure. Realists get allocation.