The Solow model in an AI age

In February 1956, US economist Robert Solow published a model to understand economic growth, which was followed by Australian economist Trevor Swan in November that year. The nine-month delay and Swan’s inhibitions led the model to be dubbed as the Solow model. On its 70th anniversary, it remains central to current debates around the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the global economy. It is a remarkable coincidence that the term AI was coined by the computer scientist, John McCarthy, in 1956.