2026年8月13日 美国东部时间下午5:49 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
作者：梅根·塞鲁洛 记者，MoneyWatch栏目
梅根·塞鲁洛是驻纽约的CBS MoneyWatch记者，报道小企业、职场、医疗保健、消费者支出和个人理财话题。她定期亮相CBS News 24/7频道讨论其报道内容。
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美国企业在人工智能上的巨额支出正在推高消费者物价，与遏制通胀的努力背道而驰。
人工智能需要海量计算能力，这推动了对相关半导体的需求。芯片成本上涨也促使电子产品制造商提高智能手机、电脑、软件和其他科技配件的价格。
专家表示，消费者对日常使用设备的价格变化十分敏感，因此会注意到价格上涨。
“消费者会关注手机这类商品的价格，”纽约哥伦比亚商学院专注于人工智能和消费者行为研究的埃里克·约翰逊教授告诉CBS News。“老话讲牛奶价格会影响人们对生活成本的感知。如今，手机已经取代了牛奶的位置。”
本周公布的消费者物价指数（CPI）追踪了典型一篮子商品和服务的价格随时间的变化情况，数据显示7月通胀率按年率计算为3.4%，符合经济学家的预期。剔除波动较大的食品和能源价格的核心商品价格较上月上涨0.2%。
但信息技术商品——基础硬件和软件产品——的价格涨幅要大得多，7月较上月上涨1.4%。这意味着：通胀率仍远高于美联储设定的2%年度目标，而不断上涨的科技成本是推高商品价格的重要因素。
“我们正处于一场大规模的人工智能相关基础设施建设中，这需要芯片等投入品，而这些投入品也会用于消费品生产，”美国银行证券（BofA Securities）经济学家斯蒂芬·若奥告诉CBS News。“如今消费者正在与企业争夺这些商品，这挤出了部分消费需求。”
需求走强推高了图形处理器和计算机存储设备的价格。为消费电子产品组件支付更高成本的企业将这些成本转嫁给了购物者，若奥补充道。随着消费者订阅升级后的生成式人工智能工具，软件成本也在上涨，用户平均每月为此花费约20至30美元。
人工智能还在其他方面推高消费者物价。数据中心能耗巨大，加剧了国家电网的压力，并推高了美国人的水电费。最新CPI数据显示，7月电费较去年同期上涨4.2%。
短期阵痛，长期利好？
经济学家认为，企业在人工智能上的巨额投资预计将在近期继续推高通胀。牛津经济研究院（Oxford Economics）美国首席经济学家伯纳德·亚罗斯在今年早些时候的一份报告中指出，他预计价格上涨“将在未来两年内持续对核心通胀产生反常的推高作用”。
亚罗斯还认为，这些由科技驱动的通胀压力将比目前推高消费者物价的其他因素持续更久，其中包括美国上调关税以及伊朗局势引发的能源成本上涨。
从长期来看，许多经济学家预计人工智能将通过提高企业生产效率来降低物价。但在那之前，消费者可能不得不承受这种痛苦。
编辑：阿兰·谢特
AI is driving up consumer prices. That won’t stop anytime soon, experts say.
August 13, 2026 5:49 PM EDT / CBS News
By Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
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The torrent of corporate spending on artificial intelligence in the U.S. is driving up consumer prices, working against efforts to cool inflation.
AI requires enormous computing power, driving demand for the semiconductors that enable it. Rising chip costs are also prompting electronics manufacturers to raise prices on smartphones, computers, software and other tech accessories.
Consumers are sensitive to cost changes for the devices they use daily, so they notice when prices climb, experts said.
“Consumers track prices for things like phones,” Eric Johnson, a professor at the Columbia Business School in New York who focuses on AI and consumer behavior, told CBS News. “The old line is that the price of milk influences what you think the cost of living is. Phones are the new milk.”
This week’s Consumer Price Index, which tracks changes in the price of a typical basket of goods and services over time, showed that inflation in July rose at a 3.4% annual pace, in line with economists’ expectations. Core goods, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, increased 0.2% from the previous month.
But the cost of information technology commodities — basic hardware and software products — rose much faster, increasing 1.4% in July from the previous month. Translation: Inflation continues to run well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target, and rising tech costs are a significant contributor to climbing goods prices.
“We are in the midst of a huge AI-related buildout, which requires inputs like chips that also go into consumer goods,” BofA Securities economist Stephen Juneau told CBS News. “So now consumers are competing for these goods with businesses, which is crowding out demand.”
Stronger demand is pushing up prices for graphics processing units and computer storage. Firms that pay more for the components that go into consumer electronics are passing the costs on to shoppers, Juneau added. Software costs are also rising as consumers spring for paid subscriptions to souped-up generative AI tools, spending roughly $20 to $30 a month on average.
AI is also driving up consumer prices in other ways. Data centers use enormous amounts of energy, straining the nation’s electric grid and boosting Americans’ utility bills. The latest CPI data shows that electricity costs rose 4.2% in July from a year ago.
Short-term pain, long-term gain?
Hefty business investment in AI is expected to continue boosting inflation in the near term, according to economists. Oxford Economics lead U.S. economist Bernard Yaros noted in a report earlier this year that he expects price surges to “continue to provide an atypical boost to core inflation over the next two years.”
Yaros also thinks those tech-driven inflationary pressures will persist longer than other factors currently contributing to rising consumer prices, including steeper U.S. tariffs and higher energy costs due to the Iran war.
Over the longer term, many economists expect AI to exert downward pressure on prices by creating efficiencies that make businesses more productive. Until then, however, consumers may have to take the pain.
Edited by Alain Sherter
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