What Griliches captured, and what subsequent economists confirmed, is that the spread of technologies is shaped less by the intrinsic qualities of the innovations than by the economic situations of the users. The users’ key question is not, as it is for technologists, “What can the technology do?” but “How…
A.I. might eventually transform the economy — by making new products and new business models possible, by predicting things humans couldn’t have foreseen, and by relieving employees of drudgery. But that could take longer than hoped or feared, depending on where you sit. Most companies aren’t …