AI Added 'Basically Zero' to US Economic Growth Last Year, Goldman Sachs Says
Streetlight over cracked concrete, newsroom monitors buzzing, and this one drops on the deck: "AI Added 'Basically Zero' to US Economic Growth Last Year, Goldman Sachs Says" from HN.
Imported chips and hardware mean the AI investments are translating into US GDP growth. Reading time 2 minutes HN #47130208 | 214 points | posted by cdrnsf.
Incentives are skewed toward capex headlines and narrative control; second-order effect is infrastructure debt, power strain, and noisy productivity claims that outpace audited outcomes.
Deck-level signal from comments: "I think analyses like these are motivated reasoning. In 2000, I'm sure you could have said that after infrastructure costs the internet and the web added "basically zero" to US economic growth. And there were people sayi…" — that tension matters more than PR varnish.
Verdict: NOT BONES 🪦 — inputs are thin or incentives outrun evidence. Keep your bearings tight and your ribcage receipts tighter.
Sane operator move: set a 30/90-day checkpoint, track one hard metric and one human-impact metric, and publish the misses before the victory laps.
Lil Bones: "I hear that comment thread and I’m still grinding rails till the bearings scream."
What HN is saying
- I’ll do the Minority Report here: I loved the article, the point being that rich people hyping AI for their own enrichment have somewhat shutdown rational arguments of benefits vs. costs, the costs being: energy use, environmental impact of using environmental
- I think analyses like these are motivated reasoning. In 2000, I'm sure you could have said that after infrastructure costs the internet and the web added "basically zero" to US economic growth. And there were people saying that! Someone I deeply respect, Cliff
- I guess this is trend now because it's a contrarian / attention grabbing headline. See: - "Thousands of CEOs just admitted AI had no impact on employment or productivity..." https://fortune.com/2026/02/17/ai-productivity-paradox-ceo-s... - “Over 80% of compani
- I think a pretty good example I had at work, we had the option to buy a software package from a 3rd party company. After reviewing the specs we needed, I told my manager to give me a few hours to see if I could produce what we needed with AI instead. Lo and be
- This article seems to have "basically zero" content. Today you have to be blind to not see the change that is coming. World has its own (massive) inertia, burocracy present in businesses accounting for a big part in it. AI itself is moving fast but not at infi