The geography of AI

Much of the U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) discussion revolves around futuristic dreams of both utopia and dystopia. However, it bears remembering that AI is also becoming a real-world economic fact with major implications for national and regional economic development as the U.S. crawls out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on advanced uses of statistics, algorithms, and fast computer processing, AI has become a focal point of U.S. innovation debates. Even more, AI is increasingly viewed as the next great "general purpose technology"--one that has the power to boost the productivity of sector after sector of the economy. All of which is why state and city leaders are increasingly assessing AI for its potential to spur economic growth.