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Tech Tycoons have Got the Economics of AI Wrong

Even as economic growth was just removing, some economists were currently pessimistic. Coal, composed William Stanley Jevons in 1865, is “the mainspring of modern-day material civilisation”. Yet it was finite and would quickly run out. Although more might be found by digging deeper, it would be increasingly expensive to extract and these greater expenses would decrease the competitiveness of Britain’s manufacturers. After all, in other nations the black fuel was still in sight of daytime. Efficiency gains-using less coal to produce the exact same quantity of stuff-would not save the country. Indeed, cleverer usage of limited resources would simply provide a reward to burn even more coal, which would, paradoxically, cause an even much faster usage of British reserves. There was no escape, the Victorian economist thought. Coal would be exhausted and the country was most likely to “contract to her former littleness”.

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

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Tech magnates have got the economics of AI wrong

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