Data Analytics Research and Teaching Committee Seminar
Friday, January 11, 2019
9:30 am
RAWLS 3058
The Data Analytics Research and Teaching Committee has invited Avi Goldfarb to speak at Krannert. Avi will be speaking about “The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence.”
Artificial intelligence does the seemingly impossible, magically bringing machines to life--driving cars, trading stocks, and teaching children. But facing the sea change that AI will bring can be paralyzing. How should companies set strategies, governments design policies, and people plan their lives for a world so different from what we know? To understand this, it is important to recognize that recent advances in AI do not bring us true intelligence, but a particular aspect of intelligence—prediction. AI should be recast as a drop in the cost of prediction. When AI is framed as cheap prediction, its extraordinary potential becomes clear:
· Prediction is at the heart of making decisions under uncertainty. Our businesses and personal lives are riddled with such decisions.
· Prediction tools increase productivity--operating machines, handling documents, communicating with patients and customers.
· Uncertainty constrains strategy. Better prediction creates opportunities for new business structures and strategies to compete.