Federal Reserve Vice Chairman: It may be too early to say whether AI will influence the Fed's monetary policy decisions.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Thomas Jefferson stated that he believes there is a clear distinction between the rise of artificial intelligence and the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. In prepared remarks for an event at the Cleveland Fed on Friday, Jefferson said that many internet companies of the late 1990s and 2000s "achieved little profit, only speculative revenue prospects, even though they received external funding and were relatively easy to list on exchanges amidst investor enthusiasm." Jefferson added that valuations of AI-related companies, measured by price-to-earnings ratios, are still far below the peak levels of internet companies. He said that at the height of the dot-com bubble, there were over 1,000 publicly traded companies ostensibly focused on internet companies, while today there are only about 50 publicly traded companies focused on artificial intelligence. Jefferson also stated that it may be too early to judge the impact of AI on the Fed's monetary policy decisions. He added that the financial system remains robust and resilient.