If AI is a public good, nationalisation should be considered

ARTIFICIAL intelligence could well prove to be the most profoundly consequential technology in human history. It is already challenging long-held notions of intelligence and creativity, promising to hasten scientific progress, and raising uncertainties about the future of jobs.

In these tantalising times, there is no shortage of techno-optimists who insist that we stand on the cusp of a world of super-abundance as AI usage will enable historic gains in productivity and prosperity.

Many economists, however, are not quite as sanguine. We worry about the gains being concentrated among a few, while large swaths of white-collar jobs are automated away.