Will AI Provide Fiscal Relief?

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to transform scores of private industries and potentially create entirely new ones, but it is also likely to fundamentally alter the public sector. A recent paper published by the Brookings Institution is an early look at those potential effects, focused specifically on the federal budget. Its conclusions point mostly toward an easing of fiscal pressure in the future, which would be a welcome development, but the opposite result cannot be ruled out.