I sometimes wonder whether Starmer's team obsess so much about AI as a miracle solution to all growth problems because they're not really willing to sell the more realistic scenario of European economic growth being kickstarted through military Keynesianism - ThreadSky

aphclarkson.bsky.social • 22 days ago

I sometimes wonder whether Starmer's team obsess so much about AI as a miracle solution to all growth problems because they're not really willing to sell the more realistic scenario of European economic growth being kickstarted through military Keynesianism

Reposted from Dan Davies

I think "plan" is putting it a bit strongly here - what they seem to have is exactly the second ????? stage in that south park joke

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joseggarcia.bsky.social•20 days ago

We have several thousand AI point solutions for radiology (70% of the total in health AI).

Demand for radiologists has increased. Only half of radiologists use them.

radiobeartime.com•22 days ago

The fundamental problem for Grey Labour is that a realistic industrial strategy would have to make difficult choices around priorities and timescales.

For a timid and tetchy government this is hard.

Much easier to buy the monorail and blame the usual suspects when it fails.

psvrh.bsky.social•22 days ago

It would require difficult decisions about rich people having to be less rich, so that poor people can be less poor.

flago2009.bsky.social•22 days ago

Also a serious monorail would involve difficult choices around priorities and timescales. But I get the gist.

tmkdf.bsky.social•22 days ago

Isn't it the same with all governments? AI will end poverty, solve the demographic collapse, no need for migration anymore, and save the climate!

isbi.bsky.social•22 days ago

They are probably exaggerating, although there could be productivity growth in certain sectors.

garvanwalshe.org•22 days ago

Nah they’ve just drunk the TBI snake oil

aphclarkson.bsky.social•22 days ago

Partly, but doing a serious industrial strategy would also involve a lot more power to ministers like Rayner and Miliband. And some on Team Starmer seem unwilling to do that

danjac.bsky.social•22 days ago

It's all a pattern with successive British governments believing in One Weird Trick to arrest that country's terminal decline: see also privatisation, austerity, Brexit, Truss budget, PFI, the Social Contract...

jmcara.bsky.social•22 days ago

See also: “North sea oil”

isbi.bsky.social•22 days ago

Military Keynesianism? It sounds interesting.

zachelsbury.bsky.social•21 days ago

There's also a strange sense of HMT simply not wanting to spend the money required.

samhufton1.bsky.social•21 days ago

Familiar sense

zachelsbury.bsky.social•21 days ago

HMT would rather bankrupt the country in the long-term than spend money in the short-term.

nvondarza.bsky.social•22 days ago

My question is more whether this would benefit voters. Either AI is really transformative, then it will make companies more productive but likely reduce employment (or pay) or it will not be as transformative, and then not really move the dial on growth or productivity.

tippingpoint24.bsky.social•21 days ago

Exactly this. As someone who works in an AI adjacent field and very conversant with the state of the art, I will say that it will be completely transformative for knowledge work, and terrible for knowledge workers employment.

aphclarkson.bsky.social•21 days ago

Since the 1990s students have been told to learn to code yet now a skillset governments put so much store on to boost growth might become largely irrelevant

tippingpoint24.bsky.social•21 days ago

Indeed. My kids are going into music performance and medicine respectively, yes they want to do it but I have actively encouraged that interest over learning to code.

nvondarza.bsky.social•22 days ago

As an example, translators are essentially in the process of being wiped out by AI or reduced to checking AI translations. That makes some part of the economy more productive, but certainly not translators.

isbi.bsky.social•22 days ago

Won’t something like that redirect work to other sectors, even within the framework of one industry, for example publishing?

Something similar might happen with many lower-paid service activities.

blubball.bsky.social•22 days ago

this is so silly. AI needs massive capital investment and if we know there is one thing Britain wont do no matter what its big capital investment.

quietnotabot.bsky.social•22 days ago

AI could and probably will significantly impact our economy and lives, but nowhere nearly as significantly as fair taxation and wealth redistribution. Right now, it’s an expensive sand castle on a shitty beach.

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