Recent Articles

Read more about our latest published articles.

Review’s Archive

Corresponding Author:
Nicola Acocella, University La Sapienza, MEMOTEF, Rome, Italy

Artificial Intelligence. Benefits, Applications, Risks and Costs

May 15, 2025
JEL classification: I21; J01; J43; O14; O15
Keywords: Labour Economics; Agriculture; Human Resources; Industry; Education

Abstract

AI is not a novel, unprecedent, revolution in human experience. Other innovations, such as spoken language, writing, electricity, the steam engine, telecommunications, have previously extended our capacities. At the beginning, predictions as to the impact of AI were very different as from different sources. This can be largely justified by the fact that the consequences of AI are indeed manifold. Its applications are numerous, spacing from early diagnosis of diseases in healthcare to a range of financial applications - like early detection of fraud in financial institutions, auditing, anti-money laundering and AI-managed portfolios - education (for changing the way of learning of people, the use of AI in media, such as in The Associated Press’ use of automated insights; producing earning reports stories; personalised learning; written language translation and speech translation technology to convert one language’s spoken words into another). Together with positive applications, however, many risks derive from AI, such as: lack of transparency, bias and discrimination, privacy concerns, ethical dilemmas, security risks, concentration of power, etc. Circumstances influencing the nature of effects of AI on growth and employment depend to a large extent on institutions and policies.


Read the full article

Download the article in PDF format to read and print.


Bibliography

Acemoglu, D. and S. Johnson (2023), “Rebalancing AI, Artificial Intelligence”, Finance and Development Magazine, December, pp. 26-29, https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2023/12/Rebalancing-AI-Acemoglu-Johnson.

Acocella, N. (2024), Artificial Intelligence. Benefits and Costs, Cambridge Scholars: Newcastle. 

Aghion, P., A. Céline and S. Bunel (2019), “Artificial Intelligence, Growth and Employment: The Role of Policy”, Economie et Statistique/Economics and Statistics, (510-511-512), 149-164.

Bryson, J.J. (2019), The Past Decade and Future of AI’s Impact on Society, https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/publications/the-past-decade-and-future-of-ais-impact-on-society.

Bughin, J. (2023), “Does Artificial Intelligence Kill Employment Growth: The Missing Link of Corporate AI Posture”, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 6:1239466, doi: 10.3389/frai.2023.1239466.

Cavalcante de Oliveira, R. and R. Diogne de Souza e Silva (2023), “Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture: Benefits, Challenges, and Trends”, Applied Sciences, 13(3), 7405, https://doi.org/10.3390/app13137405.

Cazzaniga, M., F. Jaumotte, L. Li, G. Melina, A.J. Panton, C. Pizzinelli, E.J. Rockall and M. Mendes Tavares (2024), “Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work”, International Monetary Fund Staff Discussion Notes 2024/001.

Coursera Staff (2024), “5 Benefits of AI to Know in 2024 (+ 3 Risks to Watch Out for)”, March 19, https://www.coursera.org/articles/benefits-of-ai.

Ekelund, H. (2024), “Why there will be Plenty of Jobs in the Future — even with Artificial Intelligence”, The World Economic Forum, February 26, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/02/artificial-intelligence-ai-jobs-future/.

Georgieff, A. and R. Hyee (2021), “Artificial Intelligence and Employment: New Cross-Country Evidence”, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 265, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/c2c1d276-en.

Ilzetzki, E. and S. Jain (2023), “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Growth and Employment”, CEPR, June 20, https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/impact-artificial-intelligence-growth-and-employment.

Lu, C-H. (2021), “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Economic Growth and Welfare”, Journal of Macroeconomics, 69, 103342.

Kanungo, A. (2023), “The Green Dilemma: Can AI Fulfil its Potential without Harming the Environment?”, July 18, https://earth.org/the-green-dilemma-can-ai-fulfil-its-potential-without-harming-the-environment/.

Manyika, J., S. Lund, M. Chui, J. Bughin, L. Woetzel, P. Batra, R. Ko and S. Sanghvi (2017), “Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: What the Future of Work will Mean for Jobs, Skills, and Wages”, November 28,  McKinsey Global Institute Report.

Marr, B. (2021), “The 7 Biggest Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trends in 2022, FORBESINNOVATION ENTERPRISE TECH, September 24, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2021/09/24/the-7-biggest-artificial-intelligence-ai-trends-in-2022/.

Miró-Nicolau, M., A. Jaume-i-Capó and G. Moyà-Alcover (2024), “Assessing Fidelity in XAI Post-Hoc Techniques: A Comparative Study with Ground Truth Explanations Datasets”, Artificial Intelligence, 335, October, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2024.104179.

OECD (2023), OECD Employment Outlook 2023: Artificial Intelligence and the Labour Market, OECD Publishing: Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/08785bba-en

Prakken, H. (2024), “An Abstract and Structured Account of Dialectical Argument Strength”, Artificial Intelligence, 335, October, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2024.104193.

Rayner, M. (2023), “AI: 3 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Future of Work”, World Economic Forum, August 14, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/08/ai-artificial-intelligence-changing-the-future-of-work-jobs/.

Shen, Y. and X. Zhang (2024), “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Employment: The Role of Virtual Agglomeration”, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11, 122, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02647-9.

Thomas, M. (2024), “The Future of AI: How Artificial Intelligence Will Change the World”, https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/artificial-intelligence-future#:~:text=How%20AI%20Will%20Impact%20the%20Future%201%20Improved,Increased%20Regulation%20...%205%20Climate%20Change%20Concerns%20

Ueda, D., S.L. Walston, S. Fujita, Y. Fushimi, T. Tsuboyama, K. Kamagata, A. Yamada, M. Yanagawa, R. Ito, N. Fujima, M. Kawamura, T. Nakaura, Y. Matsui, F. Tatsugami, T. Fujioka, T. Nozaki, K. Hirata and S. Naganawa (2024), “Climate Change and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Review and Recommendations towards a Sustainable Future”, Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, 105(11), 453-459, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211568424001384?via%3Dihub.

UNESCO (2023), “Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, The UNESCO Courier, 4, October-December, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000387029_eng.                      

Urwin, R. (2024), Artificial Intelligence: From Machine Learning to Super-Intelligence and Singularity, Arcturus Publishing: London.

Wikipedia (no date), Applications of Artificial Intelligence, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applications_of_artificial_intelligence .

Register your account

First-time users should click on “Register your account” and enter the requested information. Upon successful registration, you will receive an e-mail with instructions to verify your registration.

Submission Guidelines

Authors’ login

Use the assigned user ID and password to login. Please, do not register again. Usernames and passwords may be changed after.

Quick search by author:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Back to the top

Institute for International Economics
of the Genoa Chamber of Commerce


Istituto di Economia Internazionale
Camera di Commercio di Genova
Via Garibaldi, 4 (III piano) - 16124 Genova (Italy)
www.ge.camcom.gov.it