Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Ajay K. Agrawal, Joshua S. Gans, Avi Goldfarb, and Catherine Tucker, Organizers

September 26-27, 2019

Intercontinental Hotel, 220 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON Canada M5S 1T8

Conference Code of Conduct

Wednesday, September 25
6:30 pm
Group Dinner at Signatures Restaurant - Intercontinental Hotel
Thursday, September 26
8:30 am
Continental Breakfast - Barclay Room, Second Floor
9:00 am
Introductions
9:15 am

How Automation that Substitutes for Labor Affects Production Networks, Growth, and Income Inequality
Discussant: Pascual Restrepo, Yale University and NBER
10:00 am

New Frontiers: The Evolving Content and Geography of New Work in the 20th Century
Discussant: Patrick Francois, University of British Columbia
10:45 am
Break
11:00 am
Session: Regulation

How Would AI Regulation Change Firms' Behavior? Evidence from Thousands of Managers

Regulatory Markets for AI Safety

Biased Programmers? Or Biased Data? A Field Experiment about Algorithmic Bias
Discussant: Carl Shapiro, University of California, Berkeley and NBER
12:00 pm
Lunch - Barclay Room, Second Floor

Presentation by Steve Jurvetson, Future Ventures
Accelerating Change — Iterating to Superintelligence

Presentation by Abraham Heifets, CEO, Atomwise, Inc.
Portfolios of Discovery: Increasing Success and Reducing Variance in Drug Discovery with AI

Discussion by Scott Stern, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER/ followed by Open Discussion
2:00 pm

Service Quality in the Gig Economy: Empirical Evidence about Driving Quality at Uber
Discussant: Matt Taddy, Amazon, Inc.
2:45 pm

Manipulation-Proof Machine Learning
Discussant: Mitsuru Igami, University of Toronto
3:30 pm

White Collar Technological Change: Evidence from Job Posting Data
Discussant: Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan and NBER
4:15 pm
Break
4:30 pm
Session: Applications of Machine Learning

Predictably Unequal? The Effects of Machine Learning on Credit Markets

Reading China: Predicting Policy Change with Machine Learning

Machine Learning, Human Experts, and the Valuation of Real Assets
Discussant: Mara Lederman, University of Toronto
5:30 pm
Panel Discussion on Task-Based and Systems Models
with Timothy Bresnahan, David Autor, and Pascual Restrepo
6:00 pm
Adjourn
6:30 pm
Group Dinner
Gardiner Museum
111 Queens Park, Toronto

Presentation by Jack A. Clark, OpenAI
Friday, September 27
8:00 am
Continental Breakfast - Barclay Room, Second Floor
8:30 am

IT, AI and the Growth of Intangible Capital
Discussant: Diego A. Comin, Dartmouth College and NBER
9:15 am
Session: AI and Innovation

Engineering Value: The Returns to Technological Talent and Investments in Artificial Intelligence

Deep Learning, Deep Change? Mapping the Development of the Artificial Intelligence General Purpose Technology

Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Discovery, and Commercial Innovation
Discussant: Timothy F. Bresnahan, Stanford University
10:15 am
Break
10:45 am

How Does Compliance Affect the Returns to Algorithms? Evidence from Boston's Restaurant Inspectors
Discussant: Amalia R. Miller, University of Virginia and NBER
11:30 am
Session: What Happens to Workers?

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work: Evidence from Analysts

Automatic Reaction – What Happens to Workers at Firms that Automate?

Robots Are Us: Some Economics of Human Replacement (slides)
Discussant: Jason Furman, Harvard University
12:30 pm
Lunch - Barclay Room, Second Floor

Presentation by Tomi Poutanen, Layer 6
2:00 pm

Consumer-Lending Discrimination in the FinTech Era
Discussant: Stefan Hunt, Keystone Strategy
2:45 pm

Managing Intelligence: Skilled Experts and AI in Markets for Complex Products
Discussant: Ariel Dora Stern, Hasso Plattner Institute
3:30 pm
Wrap Up and Closing Remarks
3:35 pm
Adjourn

FORMAT:
Regular sessions: 20 mins presenter, 10 mins discussion, 15 mins Q&A.
Short paper sessions: 10 mins presenter, 15 mins discussion, 15 mins Q&A.