Artificial intelligence and economic planning

The economic calculation of a central planner has traditionally been argued to result in irrational and inefficient allocation of resources, but this can be reasonably questioned given advances in computing technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI). We conclude that central planning couple...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAI & society Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 985 - 1007
Main Authors Gmeiner, Robert, Harper, Mario
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Springer London 01.06.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Algorithms
Artificial Intelligence
Computation
Computer Science
Computers
Control
Data acquisition
Economic planning
Engineering Economics
Logistics
Machine learning
Marketing
Mechatronics
Methodology of the Social Sciences
Open Forum
Organization
Performing Arts
Robotics
Society
Stagnation
Tacit knowledge
H11
Economic planning
Artificial intelligence
P21
Incentive compatibility
O21
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Summary:The economic calculation of a central planner has traditionally been argued to result in irrational and inefficient allocation of resources, but this can be reasonably questioned given advances in computing technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI). We conclude that central planning coupled with AI is still unable to allocate resources with the same efficiency as price signals and market forces through examinations of the technical structure of current AI approaches. AI-driven central planning is not viable in part due to incentives, computing power, knowledge/data acquisition, and speed of collection. There are deep incentive problems for planners, programmers, and ordinary participants to complicate efforts at planning and bias data. Most importantly, AI cannot easily or quickly duplicate the signals of relative scarcity that are generated in markets. Some challenges we highlight are pertinent to planning generally, but many others arise from the introduction of an AI-planner.
ISSN:0951-5666
1435-5655
DOI:10.1007/s00146-022-01523-x