How the AI boom was enabled by a 1970s economic revolution

Advertising in New York for Maven AGI, an artificial intelligence company providing customer support services. rblfmr/Shutterstock

Artificial intelligence is accelerating a global economic revolution that began back in the 1970s. Researching the impacts of AI on different sectors of society highlights an important parallel moment in history: the creation of the “service economy” in the US.

In 1972, amid a period of global turmoil, a group of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation...