Tech Tycoons have Got the Economics of AI Wrong

Even as economic growth was just removing, some economists were currently downhearted. Coal, wrote William Stanley Jevons in 1865, is “the mainspring of modern-day product civilisation”. Yet it was finite and would soon go out. Although more might be found by digging deeper, it would be significantly pricey to extract and these greater expenses would decrease the competitiveness of Britain’s producers. After all, in other nations the black fuel was still in sight of daytime. Efficiency gains-using less coal to produce the very same quantity of stuff-would not save the . Indeed, cleverer usage of minimal resources would merely supply a reward to burn much more coal, which would, paradoxically, lead to an even quicker use of British reserves. There was no escape, the Victorian financial expert thought. Coal would be tired and the nation was most likely to “contract to her previous littleness”.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Rocked by DeepSeek”

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Tech magnates have actually got the economics of AI wrong

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