Avi Goldfarb

Co-author, "Power and Prediction" | Author of the bestselling, "Prediction Machines" | Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare | Professor of Marketing, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Avi Goldfarb is a bestselling author and researcher whose studies focus on artificial intelligence and the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy. He has published academic articles in marketing, statistics, law, management, medicine, political science, refugee studies, physics, computing, and economics. In his speeches, he provides illuminating insights and practical advice on the economics of artificial intelligence, privacy, and digital health with professorial clarity.

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His bestselling first book, Prediction Machines, was the first to map out the simple yet game-changing economics of AI — the impact of the drop in the cost of prediction. Now he’s back with Power and Prediction, emphasizing both the disruptive impact of AI and the opportunities for businesses in all industries. With virtuosic fervor, he connects threads between AI’s decision-making abilities, power, profits, and control.

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Avi Goldfarb is the first holder of the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare, and a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He is also Chief Data Scientist at the Creative Destruction Lab, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a former Senior Editor at Marketing Science.

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Avi’s research has been widely covered by the most prestigious media outlets, including The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal. He has delivered talks on artificial intelligence at top tech companies including Amazon, Facebook/Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, and Uber. Of renowned real-world significance, Avi's work on privacy issues has been used by the White House and the European Commission. He testified about competition and online advertising at the US Senate Committee of the Judiciary, and his study on online advertising won the INFORMS Society of Marketing Science Long Term Impact Award. Avi received his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University.

Topics

Power and Prediction: Disruption through AI

Today, we sit in a striking phase in the development of artificial technology that Avi Goldfarb calls “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. Disruption resulting from the proliferation of AI is coming. Is your business prepared to identify and address these disruptive opportunities and threats? In this talk, Avi Goldfarb offers practical tips, tools, and strategies for making the coming AI disruptions work for you rather than against you.

Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of AI

Prediction — using information you have to generate information you don’t have — lies at the heart of making decisions under uncertainty. Uncertainty constrains strategy. Better prediction creates opportunities for new business structures and strategies to compete. In his seminal work, Prediction Machines, Avi Goldfarb breaks through both the frenzied alarms and utopian assumptions surrounding artificial intelligence and boils AI’s impact down to one simple principle — a drop in the cost of prediction. Your audience will walk away from this fun, penetrating, and practical talk with a deeper understanding of how artificial intelligence will affect business, public policy, and society in terms that work for decision makers at every level and perspective in virtually all fields.

Artificial intelligence in healthcare: Challenges and opportunities

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 the healthcare industry. It does this by decoupling prediction from the other aspects of decision-making, thereby creating 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. For healthcare, this might mean a democratization of access and care. It might also mean disruption to those who benefit from the way the system works today.