The buzz at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was all about connectivity and machine learning. For some reason, the world’s engineers seem strangely compelled to turn every quotidian product — from toothbrushes, to cars, to showers, to shoes — into smart, connected devices.
That may do wonders for our dental hygiene and jogging routines. But will it do much for the economy?
John Fernald, a senior research adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, laments the fact that today’s innovations focus more on improving leisure time than business efficiency. “Tremendous things are happening in Silicon Valley,” Mr Fernald told the Wall Street Journal. “But to really change the productivity numbers, those things have to translate into how businesses throughout the economy operate.”