A simple model of AI-aided economic growth – intelligence vs Polyani Knowledge

Polanyi knowledge.  Michael Polanyi, that is.  This refers to knowledge of time and place, inarticulable knowledge, custom and habit, and many other particularities that you can read about in Hayek and Polanyi and in many other social scientists, anthropologists too.

Humans specialize in this.  The AIs can aid in its production, but at least so far there is no way you can “bring an AI into your office and have it figure out how that office works.”  At least not in the human rather than the purely mechanistic sense.

In the model, intelligence and Polanyi knowledge combine to produce output.

Substitutability is fairly limited.  For instance, if you have problems of norms in your office, a mere dose of AI-drenched technocratic knowledge does not usually solve those problems.  Sometimes it even can make those problems worse, by empowering rent-seekers further.
— Read on marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/09/a-simple-model-of-ai-aided-economic-growth.html


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