Artificial intelligence is improving fast. Its effect on output, not so much

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Illustration: Ben Hickey

Artificial intelligence is advancing at startling speed. The latest models can now complete complex, time-eating tasks with little human supervision. This month one of OpenAI’s models helped derive a new result in theoretical physics. No wonder an essay declaring that “Something Big is Happening” and, in recent days, a blog post of a similar tenor, have gone viral.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Everywhere but the statistics”

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