Prediction Machines
The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Lavin Exclusive Speaker
Prediction is about making decisions under uncertainty. But when we design artificial intelligence to make predictions on our behalf, is it able to rise to the challenge of dealing with risk and the unexpected? That’s on the brink of greatness, says economist Ajay Agrawal. Co-author of the definitive book on AI, Prediction Machines, as well as the upcoming Power and Prediction, Ajay is founder of the Creative Destruction Lab, which boasts the greatest concentration of AI start-ups of any program on the planet. His talks illuminate the realities of AI: how machine prediction presents us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to optimize the way we do business, run governments, and provide healthcare, leaving us the space to be human where it really counts—decision-making.
We’ve heard dramatic statements about the arrival of artificial intelligence for decades, yet little seems to have changed. Other than a few well-known applications—personalized news feeds, customer service chatbots, e-commerce recommendations—the world today may seem mostly unaffected by AI. Yet world-renowned AI expert Ajay Agrawal sees the power of this technology’s potential all around us in ways that aren’t always obvious. Named the engineer of a “Billion Dollar Breakout” by The Globe and Mail, Agrawal comes at AI’s potential as both an economist and a business visionary. Ajay’s keynotes show us that business leaders and entrepreneurs are in a position to enhance the way we all work by tapping into AI opportunities right now, not tomorrow. And if we want to see AI get to an even higher level of exposure, we’ll just need a few additional investments to make it grow even bigger. In many cases, those investments are well underway. Change is coming.
As founder of the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab (the “Silicon Valley of the North”), Agrawal’s talks unpack the full potential of AI and machine prediction. His first book, Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence is a must-read survey—and practical toolkit—for anyone seeking to leverage the disruptive, transformative power of AI in the coming decades. His upcoming book, Power and Prediction, is a must-read guide for any business leader or policy maker on how to make the coming AI disruptions work for you rather than against you. As AI prediction machines improve, old ways of doing things will be upended, and this process will have winners and losers. How can businesses leverage, or protect, their positions?
As co-founder of the not-for-profit NextAI, Agrawal helps young entrepreneurs and technologists explore new commercial opportunities that are a direct result of advances in AI. He is also a co-founder of “Machine Learning and the Market for Intelligence,” an annual conference on the business of artificial intelligence. In addition, he is a co-founder of Kindred, a company that seeks to build machines with human-like intelligence.
Agrawal has been awarded Professor of the Year by MBA classes at the Rotman School seven times, the Martin-Lang Award for Excellence in Teaching, and most recently the Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award, among several other honors. He conducts research on the economics of artificial intelligence, science policy, entrepreneurial finance, and the geography of innovation. He serves on the editorial boards of multiple management and economics journals and holds a Ph.D. in Strategy and Economics and an M.Eng./MBA from the University of British Columbia. He served as a Visiting Scholar at MIT, London Business School, and Harvard University, as well as a Visiting Professor at Stanford.