Members of Fed's new task force agree with Chairman Warsh's optimistic stance on artificial intelligence
Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh announced the names of leaders of five special working groups. These groups will provide the Federal Reserve with professional advice in areas related to policy and institutional reform. Members of the artificial intelligence task force include venture capital tycoon Marc Andreessen, economist Charles I. Jones, and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. Like Wash, the three are optimistic about the economic growth potential of artificial intelligence. But convincing everyone within the Fed to agree with Warsh's point of view will not be easy. In recent internal discussions at the Federal Reserve, many officials are skeptical about the economic gains that artificial intelligence can bring. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said on Thursday that a series of special working groups aimed at introducing cutting-edge external ideas to the Federal Reserve have brought together top talents from all walks of life. Among them, the artificial intelligence task force will have a profound impact on the Fed's macroeconomic control decisions, and the external experts in this group have highly unified views. The members of the artificial intelligence task force hand-picked by Warsh all believe that artificial intelligence is a disruptive technology that will have a profound impact on economic growth and production efficiency. This is fully consistent with Warsh's own views. The artificial intelligence task force is one of five task forces announced by the Fed on Thursday. The official responsibility of the group is: "Assess the impact of new general-purpose technologies such as artificial intelligence on the economy, and provide a basis for research and judgment for the Federal Reserve's policy formulation." The team was led by three outside consultants: venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, economist Charles I. Jones, Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox Business. All three people have recently spoken out and written articles, highly affirming the positive role of artificial intelligence in the economy. Technology and AI companies are spending heavily to participate in the general election. What are their demands? Plattner withdraws from Maine Senate race, Democrats will nominate a new candidate Warsh has long been optimistic about the huge potential of artificial intelligence to reshape the economy. In June this year, at his first press conference after taking office as chairman of the Federal Reserve, he said that the popularization of artificial intelligence "may be the most significant change that the real economy, business operations, and residents' lives have experienced in my adult life." As early as 2025, he proposed that breakthroughs in artificial intelligence technology may prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates: AI can drive rapid economic growth without pushing back the On September 13, 2016, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen gave a speech at the TechCrunch Innovation Summit in San Francisco Wash and Anderson have known each other for decades and have a deep personal relationship. After ending his tenure at the Federal Reserve in 2011, Warsh managed the venture capital business for investor Stanley Druckenmiller, thereby broadening his network of contacts in Silicon Valley and increasing his personal assets. Anderson made his fortune building one of the world's first web browsers and is now one of the most vocal advocates in the field of artificial intelligence. In May of this year, he was a guest on podcast host Joe Rogan's show and talked about silicon, the core raw material of AI chips, and said bluntly: "We turned sand into wisdom." Economist Jones, like Anderson, shares the optimistic tone of the West Coast tech scene. He recently took a leave of absence from Stanford University to join the research institute of Anthropic, a leading AI company. Jones’ academic research in recent years has focused on the role of artificial intelligence in economic growth, and he was the core think tank behind Warsh’s push to unify the Federal Reserve’s views on the benefits of AI. Jones pointed out in a recent paper that per capita economic growth in U.S. history has been stable at an annual average of 2% over the long term. He wrote: “But if artificial intelligence eventually realizes the automation of almost all inefficient links in the economy, economic growth may increase significantly, and the annual growth rate may even exceed 5%.” The paper also analyzes what he defines as “economic weak links” (industry areas that are difficult to automate) and also estimates low-growth scenarios. But Jones bluntly proposed that artificial intelligence "may become the most transformative technology in modern society." Sharma became the CEO of Microsoft's Xbox gaming business in February this year and has repeatedly publicly expressed his support for artificial intelligence. But as a front-line business leader, she made a rare choice: not to regard AI as the core of the business. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, she revealed that although Microsoft has embedded AI functions in all its products, Xbox has not put artificial intelligence at the top of its product promotions. “Console gamers don’t buy into these types of AI experiences,” she explains.
However, this does not mean that she is negative about AI. She made it clear: "I absolutely believe in the value of artificial intelligence." The three working group members have not yet responded to media requests for comment, and Fed officials have declined to comment. Warsh's view may face resistance at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which controls the Fed's interest rate decisions. Minutes of the June interest rate meeting released this week showed that members discussed whether artificial intelligence could boost production efficiency. The minutes mentioned that some members recognized that AI is expected to boost productivity. However, most committee members are not fully convinced: “Members stated that there is still huge uncertainty about the timing and extent of productivity improvements brought about by AI; and that improvements in production efficiency will lag behind the current demand expansion brought about by the popularization of artificial intelligence.” At the same time, U.S. technology companies are aggressively deploying artificial intelligence, which has begun to boost the overall economy. New York Fed President John He admitted on Thursday that he was very worried about the artificial intelligence boom pushing up the price of electricity and chips. Williams said that the prices of related products have skyrocketed like a "hockey stick", with the prices of some components directly doubling or tripling. He defined artificial intelligence as a "demand shock" and said that it is currently uncertain whether the supply of chips, electricity, etc. can expand simultaneously - and supply expansion is the key to stabilizing inflation. The Federal Reserve will hold another interest rate meeting at the end of July, and the market is generally expected to keep interest rates unchanged at this meeting. All special working groups need to complete their research work before the end of this year.
However, this does not mean that she is negative about AI. She made it clear: "I absolutely believe in the value of artificial intelligence." The three working group members have not yet responded to media requests for comment, and Fed officials have declined to comment. Warsh's view may face resistance at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which controls the Fed's interest rate decisions. Minutes of the June interest rate meeting released this week showed that members discussed whether artificial intelligence could boost production efficiency. The minutes mentioned that some members recognized that AI is expected to boost productivity. However, most committee members are not fully convinced: “Members stated that there is still huge uncertainty about the timing and extent of productivity improvements brought about by AI; and that improvements in production efficiency will lag behind the current demand expansion brought about by the popularization of artificial intelligence.” At the same time, U.S. technology companies are aggressively deploying artificial intelligence, which has begun to boost the overall economy. New York Fed President John He admitted on Thursday that he was very worried about the artificial intelligence boom pushing up the price of electricity and chips. Williams said that the prices of related products have skyrocketed like a "hockey stick", with the prices of some components directly doubling or tripling. He defined artificial intelligence as a "demand shock" and said that it is currently uncertain whether the supply of chips, electricity, etc. can expand simultaneously - and supply expansion is the key to stabilizing inflation. The Federal Reserve will hold another interest rate meeting at the end of July, and the market is generally expected to keep interest rates unchanged at this meeting. All special working groups need to complete their research work before the end of this year.