A second conceptual framework for thinking about AI is the economics of research tools.
Within the research sectors, some innovations open up new avenues of inquiry, or simply
improve productivity “within the lab”. Some of these advances appear to have great potential
across a broad set of domains, beyond their initial application: as highlighted by Griliches (1957)
in his classic studies of hybrid corn, some new research tools are inventions that do not just
create or improve a specific product—instead they constitute a new way of creating new
products, with much broader application. In Griliches’ famous construction, the discovery of
double-cross hybridization “was the invention of a method of inventing.” (Hereinafter, “IMI”.)
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