About this episode
Mark Leonard discusses with Carl Benedikt Frey the implications of AI on productivity and innovation amidst a global slowdown.
This week, Mark Leonard welcomes Carl Benedikt Frey , associate professor of AI and work at the Oxford Internet Institute and author of How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation and the Fate of Nations , to discuss whether AI enthusiasm is obscuring a more fundamental problem: the global slowdown in productivity and innovation. Carl argues that technological progress is neither inevitable nor guaranteed. Despite rapid advances in computing, the internet and AI, productivity growth is stagnating. He suggests that innovation depends on the institutions, incentives and political conditions—as well as technological breakthroughs—that allow societies to adapt and scale new ideas. Mark and Carl explore what the rise of AI reveals about the changing balance between innovation and concentration, why China’s embrace of open-weight AI models could challenge American technological leadership, and why Europe continues to struggle in digital industries despite its strengths in manufacturing. Is AI about to unleash a new era of prosperity? Why has productivity growth remained weak despite decades of technological advances? What does the AI race mean for competition between the US, China and…
People in this episode
Host: Mark Leonard
Guest: Carl Benedikt Frey
Topics covered
- AI and productivity
- technological innovation
- global economic slowdown
- US-China competition
- European digital industries
- institutional factors in innovation
Keywords
- AI
- productivity
- innovation
- global economy
- technological progress
- China
- Europe
- US leadership
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Oxford Internet Institute
Books & works: How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation and the Fate of Nations, The Last Conservative
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