6.2 - Financing AI
Artificial Intelligence Policy
π§ Think:
- Is the magnitude of AI rollout sustainable? Is the scale of the financing and expenditures involved set us up for future AI growth, or set the economy up for disaster when an inevitable market correction occurs? What kinds of returns and productivity improvements are we actaully seeing in business and the workplace?
π Read:
- Gruda and Aeon, 2025. βSeven Myths about AI and Productivity: What the Evidence Really Saysβ. California Management Review.
- Snyder, 2025. βMIT Finds 95% Of GenAI Pilots Fail Because Companies Avoid Frictionβ Forbes.
π§ Listen:
- Paul Kedrosky, 2025. βThis is How the AI Bubble Could Burstβ Podcast: Plain English with Derek Thompson
- Azeem Azhar, 2025. βEveryone Thinks AI is a Bubble. What if Theyβre Wrong?β Podcast: Plain English with Derek Thompson
π Browse:
- Viral X article: Shumer, 2026. βSomething Big is Happeningβ
- Note: this link is included as an examplar of the kind of big claims being made about AI by its promoters; youβve probably seen a thousand of these, but hereβs one in case you havenβt seen the latest formulations. Judge for yourself and be sure to engage your critical thinking.
- π€‘ Parody/Humor: βAs Long as the Graph Goes Up and to the Rightβ
π Additional Resources:
- Niederhoffer et al, 2025. βAI-Generated βWorkslopβ Is Destroying Productivityβ Harvard Business Review.
- Challapally et al, 2025. βThe GenAI Divide: State of AI in Busienss 2025β. MIT NANDA.
- Anthropic, 2026βHow AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skillsβ
- Kosmyna, 2025. βYour Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Taskβ arXiv.
- Becker et al, 2025. βMeasuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivityβ METR.
- Jaffe et al, 2024. βGenerative AI in Real-World Workplaces: The Second Microsoft Report on AI and Productivity Researchβ Microsoft.
- Atlassian, 2025. βThe AI Collaboration Index: How Leading Companies unlock AI ROIβ
- Shekhar, 2025. βComprehension Debt: The Ticking Time Bomb of LLM-Generated Codeβ
π Submit:
- Discussion question to course chat
TipTip
- βπ Readβ, βπ§ Listenβ, and/or βπΊ Watchβ items are required content for the day, and should be read/heard/watched before class on that day.
- βπ Browseβ items should be briefly looked at but do not need to be read deeply unless you want to
- βπ Additional Resourcesβ do not need to be looked at; they are there to serve, if useful, as further references for your debates, final projects, and general edification later.