Book

The AI Economy

The Robot Age

Roger Bootle

Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2019

Buy the book

Read, Listen, or Discuss

Amazon Kindle Discuss

1×

Ingrese para escuchar el resumen en audio.

Editorial Rating

getAbstract Rating

Analytical
Concrete Examples
Engaging

Recommendation

Economist Roger Bootle presents a no-nonsense, evidence-based assessment of what humanity can expect in the coming decades. AI will likely deliver growth in GDP and living standards beyond anything seen in almost 50 years. The book sometimes has a rushed feel, but Bootle’s sensible, levelheaded and practical view of the coming age of AI seems correct and convincing, even though he warns throughout that – predictions being what they are – he may well be wrong.

Summary

Until the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, technological advances had almost no impact on economic growth and living standards.

Past technological advances, including the wheel and agriculture, took centuries to propagate and more centuries to make a difference. The steam engine required more than a century to revolutionize the world. Though economic growth spiked in the Industrial Revolution, living standards did not rise for most people until well into the late 19th century. The Industrial Revolution improved economies and workers’ lives worldwide, despite the bloodiest and most costly wars in history on either side of the Great Depression.

The postwar period of 1945 to 1973 saw the longest sustained growth in many nations’ histories. Since then, however, improvements in net GDP and living standards have flattened. Some experts see the current long period of stagnation as a return to the pre-Industrial-Revolution era. Flat growth, they argue, comes from the lack of breakthrough inventions and technology on the scale of the steam engine, the phone and electricity. Proponents argue that AI does resemble the phone and...

About the Author

Roger Bootle is the founder and chairman of Capital Economics and writes for a major British newspaper. Bootle and his firm won the Wolfson Economics Prize in 2012.

Comment on this summary

Sign in to share your opinion
T. N. 3 years ago

I’m not happy with the summary. I wish it can improve. Instead of ~40 statements, should group it into say 10 points, each with insight, an example or a story to drive point home.

The AI Economy

The Robot Age

Read, Listen, or Discuss

Editorial Rating

getAbstract Rating

Recommendation

Summary

Until the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, technological advances had almost no impact on economic growth and living standards.

About the Author

My Highlights

Comment on this summary

More on this topic

By the same author

The Trouble with Europe

The Trouble with Markets

Money for Nothing

Learners who read this summary also read

The Work of the Future

The Fourth Age

Capitalism in the Age of Robots

Automation, AI & Work

How to Reform Worker-Training and Adjustment Policies for an Era of Technological Change

Confessions of an AI Optimist

Related Skills