How AI Will Make Land More Valuable

tech.hindustantimes.com:

The long list of things AI will revolutionize includes, in roughly descending order of importance, childhood, democracy, the internet, chess and how to decide where to go on vacation. Today I would like to write about an area that cuts close to home: economic policy.

To start with a simple framework: Production is the result of a combination of inputs — land, labor, capital and so on. If one of those inputs becomes more plentiful, the others become more scarce, in relative terms, and thus higher in marginal value. Powerful AI makes intelligence, broadly construed, more abundant. That will be good for productivity overall, but other factors will become relatively more scarce.

First is land. With all that extra intelligence, there will be a need and a desire to undertake many new projects, ranging from innovative theatrical productions to more efficient and densely packed solar panels. These new projects could also herald a world of much cheaper and greener energy, which would further increase humankind's ability to manipulate the natural environment.

Land will thus become more valuable. One policy implication is that the current crusade for permitting reform will become more important. Permitting reform attempts to address the numerous obstacles and delays that confront infrastructure projects, including for green energy. With artificial intelligence, this should now be a much higher priority. Otherwise there could be hundreds or thousands of brilliant new ideas but no way to build them in a timely manner.

Relatedly, the YIMBY movement will also become more significant. It is hard to predict the precise effects of AI on urban and suburban environments, but it is likely they will need to change in significant ways: more