Fed Chair Powell Says AI Is Coming For Your Job

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told the U.S. Senate that while AI hasn't yet dramatically impacted the economy or labor market, its transformative effects are inevitable -- though the timeline remains uncertain. The Register reports: Speaking to the US Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday to give his semiannual monetary policy report, Powell told elected officials that AI's effect on the economy to date is 'probably not great' yet, but it has 'enormous capabilities to make really significant changes in the economy and labor force.' Powell declined to predict how quickly that change could happen, only noting that the final few leaps to get from a shiny new technology to practical implementation can be a slow one.

'What's happened before with technology is that it seems to take a long time to be implemented,' Powell said. 'That last phase has tended to take longer than people expect.' AI is likely to follow that trend, Powell asserted, but he has no idea what sort of timeline that puts on the eventual economy-transforming maturation point of artificial intelligence. 'There's a tremendous uncertainty about the timing of [economic changes], what the ultimate consequences will be and what the medium term consequences will be,' Powell said.

That continuation will be watched by the Fed, Powell told Senators, but that doesn't mean he'll have the power to do anything about it. 'The Fed doesn't have the tools to address the social issues and the labor market issues that will arise from this,' Powell said. 'We just have interest rates.'

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