Avi Goldfarb from the University of Toronto joined us on November 14, 2022, for “Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence.”
Artificial intelligence 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.
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. Avi is also chief data scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute and the Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Avi’s research focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy.
Along with Ajay Agrawal and Joshua Gans, Avi is the author of the Globe & Mail bestselling book Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence.
He has published academic articles in marketing, statistics, law, management, medicine, political science, refugee studies, physics, computing, and economics. Avi is a former senior editor at Marketing Science. 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 related work in competition and privacy in digital advertising. His work has been referenced in White House reports, European Commission documents, the New York Times, the Economist, and elsewhere.
