Tech

This article was independently developed by The Economy editorial team and draws on original analysis published by East Asia Forum. The content has been substantially rewritten, expanded, and reframed for broader context and relevance. All views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the official position of East Asia Forum or its contributors.

In April 2025, 73% of AI experts surveyed by the Pew Research Center stated that artificial intelligence would have a positive impact on how people perform their jobs over the next two decades; only 23% of the US public agreed. The growing gulf is not just about jobs or productivity; it also encompasses broader societal issues. It is about what these systems are.

This article is based on ideas originally published by VoxEU – Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has been independently rewritten and extended by The Economy editorial team. While inspired by the original analysis, the content presented here reflects a broader interpretation and additional commentary. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of VoxEU or CEPR.

This article is based on ideas originally published by VoxEU – Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has been independently rewritten and extended by The Economy editorial team. While inspired by the original analysis, the content presented here reflects a broader interpretation and additional commentary. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of VoxEU or CEPR.

This article is based on ideas originally published by VoxEU – Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has been independently rewritten and extended by The Economy editorial team. While inspired by the original analysis, the content presented here reflects a broader interpretation and additional commentary. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of VoxEU or CEPR.

The most revealing number in first‑quarter 2025 was not a blockbuster yield or a spectacular default. It was 3.1 basis points—the average bid‑ask spread recorded across forty‑one sovereign and supranational bonds issued as fully tokenised instruments on permissioned ledgers. Their matched conventional twins traded at 6.6 basis points, more than double the friction. That 3.5-basis-point delta may look microscopic, yet every basis point saved on a standard USD 100 million ten-year bond removes roughly USD 100,000 in intermediation costs.

This article is based on ideas originally published by VoxEU – Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has been independently rewritten and extended by The Economy editorial team. While inspired by the original analysis, the content presented here reflects a broader interpretation and additional commentary. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of VoxEU or CEPR.

This article was independently developed by The Economy editorial team and draws on original analysis published by East Asia Forum. The content has been substantially rewritten, expanded, and reframed for broader context and relevance. All views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the official position of East Asia Forum or its contributors.

This article is based on ideas originally published by VoxEU – Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has been independently rewritten and extended by The Economy editorial team. While inspired by the original analysis, the content presented here reflects a broader interpretation and additional commentary. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of VoxEU or CEPR.

In just eighteen months, US public school data dashboards recorded an estimated 73 million automated “risk scores”—digital red flags that can trigger everything from remedial placement to mandated mental-health referrals. The figure is not conjecture. RAND’s fall 2024 survey found that 48% of districts had trained teachers on AI tools – a jump of twenty-five points in a single year. This increase in AI usage, however, should not overshadow the crucial role of human judgment in education.

This article is based on ideas originally published by VoxEU – Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has been independently rewritten and extended by The Economy editorial team. While inspired by the original analysis, the content presented here reflects a broader interpretation and additional commentary. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of VoxEU or CEPR.

This article is based on ideas originally published by VoxEU – Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has been independently rewritten and extended by The Economy editorial team. While inspired by the original analysis, the content presented here reflects a broader interpretation and additional commentary. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of VoxEU or CEPR.

This article was independently developed by The Economy editorial team and draws on original analysis published by East Asia Forum. The content has been substantially rewritten, expanded, and reframed for broader context and relevance. All views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the official position of East Asia Forum or its contributors.

This article is based on ideas originally published by VoxEU – Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has been independently rewritten and extended by The Economy editorial team. While inspired by the original analysis, the content presented here reflects a broader interpretation and additional commentary. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of VoxEU or CEPR.

From Jakarta’s toll roads to Tokyo’s Marunouchi subway, rush-hour traffic has thinned in ways few labor economists dared predict. Bureau of Labor Statistics microdata released in February 2025 shows that the share of Asian women who reported teleworking at least once a week jumped from 7% in 2019 to 32.5% by late 2024—a near-quadruple leap matched only by wartime mobilization in modern economic history.

This article was independently developed by The Economy editorial team and draws on original analysis published by East Asia Forum. The content has been substantially rewritten, expanded, and reframed for broader context and relevance. All views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the official position of East Asia Forum or its contributors.

This article was independently developed by The Economy editorial team and draws on original analysis published by East Asia Forum. The content has been substantially rewritten, expanded, and reframed for broader context and relevance. All views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the official position of East Asia Forum or its contributors.

Universities now channel almost $14 million every hour into public cloud infrastructure, a spending line that already exceeds the combined global budgets for faculty development and student mental health programs. Data centers consume 415 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, a demand curve projected to surpass Japan’s national consumption before 2030. Conventional wisdom treats those figures as the inevitable price of artificial intelligence progress.

On a raw Tuesday morning this past April, two lines of data crossed in a way every curriculum committee should heed. First, Pew reported that 37% of American adults now begin a web search directly inside ChatGPT rather than using Google (Pew Research Center, 2025a). Second, a Vectara/Hugging Face leaderboard quietly showed that even the best model, GPT-4o-mini, still invents facts in 1.7% of answers—and in domain-specific writing, that figure can skyrocket past 40%.

This article was independently developed by The Economy editorial team and draws on original analysis published by East Asia Forum. The content has been substantially rewritten, expanded, and reframed for broader context and relevance. All views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the official position of East Asia Forum or its contributors.