Our weekly SRI Seminar Series welcomes Avi Goldfarb for a special in-person session at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare at the University of Toronto, chief data scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, and a research lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Goldfarb’s research focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy, including its implications for fields such as marketing, law, medicine, and politics. He is the co-author, with Ajay Agrawal and Joshua Gans, of the bestselling books Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence (2018), and Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence (2022).
In this talk, Goldfarb explores how artificial intelligence (AI) presents opportunities and threats in ways that are both extraordinary and unexpected. Identifying AI’s ability to decouple prediction from other aspects of decision-making as a key to its transformative impact, Goldfarb contends that it will require the invention of new ways of operating—many of which remain undiscovered—in order to truly unleash AI’s innovative potential.
Talk title:
“Power and prediction: The disruptive economics of artificial intelligence”
Abstract:
Artificial intelligence (AI) presents an extraordinary opportunity and an extraordinary threat. But not in the way that might be expected. Today’s AI is best understood as prediction technology rather than a machine that can do everything humans do. Prediction technology can nevertheless transform industries. It does this by decoupling prediction from the other aspects of decision-making, thereby enabling new ways of delivering value. Unleashing this potential requires the invention of new ways of operating, many of which remain undiscovered. Today, we sit in a striking phase in the development of this technology, “The Between Times” after witnessing AI’s potential, but before its widespread impact. On the other side of The Between Times, when this process of invention is complete, the changes in decisions will mean changes in power. In industry, power confers profits; in society, power confers control.
Venue
Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Room LL 1035.
Entrance: 95 St. George Street
Seminar will be broadcast live via Zoom (register for link).
Recommended readings:
Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb, Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence. Harvard Business Review Press, 2022.
About Avi Goldfarb
Avi Goldfarb is the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare and a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Goldfarb is also chief data scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, a research lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, a fellow at the Vector Institute, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. A former senior editor at Marketing Science, his research focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy. Goldfarb has published academic articles in marketing, computing, law, management, medicine, physics, political science, public health, statistics, and economics. co-authored the bestselling book Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence. His work on online advertising won the INFORMS Society of Marketing Science Long Term Impact Award, and he testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on competition and privacy in digital advertising. Goldfarb received his PhD in economics from Northwestern University. His new book, Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence, was published in November 2022 by Harvard Business Review Press.
About the SRI Seminar Series
The SRI Seminar Series brings together the Schwartz Reisman community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are led by a leading or emerging scholar and feature extensive discussion.
Each week, a featured speaker will present for 45 minutes, followed by an open discussion. Registered attendees will be emailed a Zoom link before the event begins. The event will be recorded and posted online.
Avi Goldfarb