Overview
- The Fed announced the five external task forces and appointed Asha Sharma as a co-lead of the Productivity and Jobs panel in an update released last week.
- The Productivity and Jobs task force is charged with assessing how general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, affect productivity, employment and the inputs the Fed uses for policymaking.
- Sharma will co-lead the panel with venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Stanford economist Charles I. Jones, combining corporate AI operations, investment, and academic measurement expertise.
- The appointment drew criticism because it followed Xbox’s announcement of a restructuring that will eliminate about 3,200 roles, with roughly 1,600 job cuts effective immediately.
- The task forces are advisory groups supported by Fed staff that will post periodic updates on the Fed website and aim to deliver evidence-based recommendations to the Federal Open Market Committee by the end of the year.