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A comment on Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on employment or productivity. Parent comment

Re:Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on emplo... by gsf_emergency_6 on Tuesday February 17, 2026 @11:43PM (#47057248)
Stanford prof rebutts David's idea[0] that it's difficult to extract productivity from the data

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w25148/w251...

I don't agree that real GDP measures what he thinks it measures, but he opines

>Data released this week offers a striking corrective to the narrative that AI has yet to have an impact on the US economy as a whole. While initial reports suggested a year of steady labour expansion in the US, the new figures reveal that total payroll growth was revised downward by approximately 403,000 jobs. Crucially, this downward revision occurred while real GDP remained robust, including a 3.7 per cent growth rate in the fourth quarter. This decoupling — maintaining high output with significantly lower labour input — is the hallmark of productivity growth.

https://www.ft.com/content/4b51d0b4-bbfe-4f05-b50a-1d485d419...

[0] on the basis that IT and AI are not general technologies in the mold of the dynamo, keyword "intangibles", see section 4 p21, A method to measure intangibles

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Re:Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on emplo... by PowerElectronix on Wednesday February 18, 2026 @06:58AM (#47060095)
GDP growth measurements have a big bias due to tariffs on, tariffs off, tariffs on again policies wrecking imports and exports numbers. Consumer spending is up, too, so I too fail to see that gdp growth while jobs are not as up as expected is due to AI making us more productive and not just people spending more after months of increased savings due to tariffs.
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Re:Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on emplo... by reg_dunlop on Wednesday February 18, 2026 @10:07PM (#47069408)
I'm curious how "consumer spending" is quantified here.

Is consumer spending measured in total dollars spent? If so, isn't that curious wrinkle in an economy of rising prices, and decreasing purchasing power?

If true, I believe less quantity could be purchased at a higher cost per person, making it appear that consumer spending is up.

Presumably these numbers are benchmarked/peg to some sort of constant and/or standardization

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Re:Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on emplo... by gsf_emergency_6 on Thursday February 19, 2026 @03:30AM (#47071351)
Nominal spending:PCE price index

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_consumption_expenditu...

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