Will humans develop resource-hungry new wants? The key question for AI-driven growth
binarybits · x · 2026-10-31
Timothy B. Lee and Jess Riedel debate the ceiling of AI-driven growth. Riedel argues Baumol's cost disease can explain why human wages remain a nontrivial economic share—people insist some services stay human—but it doesn't prevent explosive growth in energy and raw material usage. Lee counters that the big question is whether humans will develop new resource-intensive wants like Mars travel; possible, but he finds it unlikely. A substantive exchange on whether AI growth is service-based or material-based.
Related event: Debate: Will Robots Be Consumers or Just Producers in the AI Economy(8 posts)→
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