Apollo Chief Economist Slok Publishes Bearish AI Report
Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok published a bearish report on AI, arguing that mainstream enterprises neither need the latest models nor are willing to pay for them, and that token spending has become a cost center dragging down profit margins. He pointed out that total factor productivity growth is close to 0%, that AI's macroeconomic impact will be very limited, and that agentic AI and token spending remain confined to a small number of companies. He also argued that cheap commoditized models can hardly close the gap, because business value depends on judgment, accountability, trust, and unwritten rules that AI does not understand.
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Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok just published a gloomy report on AI.
imo, other signals I’m watching don’t really support these.
> Slok says mainstream firms don’t need the latest model and won’t pay for it, and with no bottom-line gain they now treat token spending as a cost center that weighs on margins.
> He says, total factor productivity growth sits near 0%, and Slok expects AI’s macro effect to stay very limited while agentic AI and token spending remain confined to a small slice of firms.
> Argues cheaper, commoditized models may not close the gap, because per him, business value depends on judgment, accountability, trust and unwritten rules that AI doesn’t understand.