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Transcript

🔮 AI & growth: Tyler Cowen’s 20-year outlook

The case for measured optimism in an age of AI hype

I was in conversation with

just earlier today (thanks to everyone who joined us live!).

We discussed:

  • Headline growth will be modest, not miraculous. Tyler pushes back on predictions of a 10–25% relative boost to GDP growth, arguing that unavoidable frictions – energy supply, regulation, inertia – cap the AI dividend.

  • Markets are pricing in *interesting but incremental*. Currency, equity and bond markets look normal; if AI were about to explode growth, we’d see it.

  • Generations use LLMs very differently. Boomers treat ChatGPT as “Google-plus”; Gen-Z treats it as a permanent confidant, a shift Tyler thinks could even reshape spirituality.

  • Career strategy for twenty-somethings. Learn AI deeply, stay adaptable and anchor work in genuine passions; in a field moving this fast, nobody can get far ahead of you, but the old “good-grades” playbook is obsolete .

  • School is out of sync. Scan-grade homework and one-size exams no longer make sense; faculty need to become mentors, yet education systems look “frozen,” risking a generation that feels unprepared .

  • Geopolitics will shift east and south. The EU risks falling behind under heavy regulation, while the Gulf states are racing to be a third AI pole.

  • You can’t really opt-out. Choosing life without AI will soon feel like living without a smartphone – technically possible, but socially and economically costly.

  • Liberal institutions matter more than ever. Tyler considers free speech, competitive politics and transparent governance as the critical shields against state misuse of AI.

Further reading and resources

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