Econ 295 and CS323
Spring 2025
Tuesdays, 4:30-5:50pm
Instructor
Erik Brynjolfsson (Stanford)
Course Description
Our economic institutions, organizations, and skills have not kept up with rapid advances in AI. In this growing gap lie many of society’s greatest challenges and opportunities.
This course will explore how the advances in AI can and will transform our economy and society in the coming years. Each week, we will learn from frontier researchers and industry leaders in technology, economics, and business, read the relevant research, and discuss the implications.
In its first two years, the class hosted guest speakers including Mira Murati, Jack Clark, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, Alexandr Wang, Condoleezza Rice, Eric Schmidt, Mustafa Suleyman, Jeff Dean, Reid Hoffman, James Manyika. View 2024 syllabus here.
Topics include foundation models/LLM/generative models; vision and robotics; work and employment; bias and explainability; AI and geopolitics; business of AI; AI and creativity; AI and Democracy; and a world without work.
Primarily for graduate students; advanced undergraduates considered.
Please note: There is no application process for the course—students should enroll the same way they would for any other course at Stanford, via Axess.
Questions? Please contact Susan Young.
Erik Brynjolfsson is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), and director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. He also is the Ralph Landau Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Professor by Courtesy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Department of Economics, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
