Bennett researchers question how public sector productivity is currently measured in the same way as private sector productivity saying this could lead to a narrow focus on budget efficiency & organisational productivity at the exclusion of effectiveness.
bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/publications/p…

Recent government efforts towards improving public sector productivity are marked by a focus on cost-efficiency & miss an opportunity to introduce other innovation-enhancing measures to the sector, write Lucy Hampton & Ayantola Maximus in a new blog.
bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/redefinin…

Increased computational power is central to recent AI progress.

Governing compute could be an effective way to achieve AI policy goals, but could also introduce new societal risks.

We explore compute governance in a recent multi-author paper.

Are you passionate about animal welfare and want to work on the interface of tech and behavior?
Come do a PhD with me at Vetmeduni!

Fully funded position for 3,5 years - application details: linkedin.com/posts/borbalaf…

Final version of mine & Lucy Hampton 's article on the cost of computation is online (open access): sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

New work-in-progress paper by me, Jen-Chung Mei & Lucy Hampton on productivity decomposition & relative price effects - any thoughts or comments welcome papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

(Part of) Team Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the The Productivity Institute conference in Manchester Owen Garling Nina M. Jörden Ayantola Maximus Lucy Hampton & Burcu Selvi

🚨 I am excited to share my JMP!

'Scale-Biased Technical Change and Inequality'

I propose a new theory on why some technologies increase inequality, while others reduce it. I provide causal evidence from the adoption of steam engines and electric motors to support the theory.

Tech companies want to 'move fast and break things'. But to ensure AI is used safely and to the benefit of all, we must involve a broader swath of society in R-AI design

⁦Lucy Hampton⁩ & I share our thoughts in ⁦Bennett Institute for Public Policy⁩ new blog. bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/using-ai-…

The declining cost of computation - new open access article by me and Lucy Hampton sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

We're excited to announce this year's Bennett Public Policy Prize question:

How can AI be implemented to improve public services?

Early career researchers & policy professionals are invited to submit a short essay/film for the opportunity to win £5,000

bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/prize

I spoke about the need to understand the Sycamore Gap tree’s slaughter in context of the wider “hostile environment” towards the natural world in the UK.
And also about how the best way to mourn the loss of this tree is to grow a forest. theguardian.com/environment/20…

1/ 11 weeks ago I agreed to Chair the UK's efforts to accelerate state capacity in AI Safety - measuring and mitigating the risks of frontier models so we can safety capture their opportunities. Here is our first progress report: gov.uk/government/pub…

Useful reminder of continuing technological progress that's in everyone's experience, but is often overlooked.
We've seen a 200 year decline in the cost of artificial light - but solid state lighting accelerated this fall (&, as Jevons tells us, in consequence we use more of it).

ML-based science is facing a reproducibility crisis. We think clear reporting standards for researchers can help.

Today, we're introducing REFORMS, a consensus-based checklist authored by 19 researchers across many disciplines.
aisnakeoil.com/p/introducing-…

Why is technology not making us more productive? By ⁦Jonty Bloom⁩ cc ⁦Bennett Institute for Public Policy⁩ ⁦The Productivity Institute⁩ bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Proposing and empirically exploring whether slow aggregate US productivity growth since the 1970s stems in part from an unbalanced sectoral distribution of innovation, from Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Christina Patterson nber.org/papers/w31427

🎉 Excited that our paper on the productivity effects of GenAI (with Shakked Noy) is now out in Science!

Link to paper and thread with updates below ⬇️
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

AI in science! I wrote two of the papers that set the context for why we might care about AI in science: an overview of the “ideas getting harder” debate and another on whether progress is slowing in agriculture.

NEW paper: How can the use of technology grow but productivity growth slow?

The answer to this paradox is less about computational power & more about organisational constraints & the need for co-invention, write Diane Coyle & Lucy Hampton

bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/publications/p…