Joshua Gans Books
Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb are professors at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
Known for: Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence, Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Books by Joshua Gans
Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence
This book explores how artificial intelligence is transforming the economy by changing the cost of prediction. The authors, leading economists and AI experts, explain how AI shifts decision-making pro...
Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Prediction Machines reframes artificial intelligence in surprisingly practical terms: not as magic, consciousness, or human-like thinking, but as a technology that dramatically lowers the cost of pred...
Key Insights from Joshua Gans
Defining Prediction
Let us begin with the essence of prediction itself. Economically, prediction is the act of using existing information to infer information we do not yet have. When you interpret a patient’s symptoms to anticipate a diagnosis or analyze market signals to forecast demand, you are performing prediction...
From Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence
The Economics of Prediction
Economics always begins with costs. When something becomes cheaper, we use more of it. This principle applies perfectly to prediction. The decline in the cost of prediction is analogous to the fall in the cost of computation during earlier technological waves. When prediction gets cheaper, decision-...
From Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Prediction Is AI’s Core Economic Function
The most useful way to understand AI is also the least glamorous: AI is a prediction technology. That idea instantly clears away much of the confusion surrounding artificial intelligence. In economic terms, prediction means using the information you have to generate information you do not have. It i...
From Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Cheap Prediction Changes the Economics of Decisions
When the price of an essential input collapses, entire systems reorganize around that fact. The authors argue that prediction is becoming such an input. Just as cheap computing transformed administration and cheap communication reshaped globalization, cheap prediction alters how firms make decisions...
From Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Judgment Becomes More Valuable, Not Less
A common fear is that as machines get better, human judgment becomes irrelevant. The book argues the opposite in many settings: when prediction gets cheaper, judgment becomes more valuable. Prediction answers the question, “What is likely to happen?” Judgment answers, “What should we do about it?” T...
From Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Data, Training, and Workflow Are Critical Complements
An AI system is never just an algorithm. It depends on a set of complementary inputs that often determine whether the technology creates value at all. The authors emphasize that falling prediction costs increase the importance of data, training labels, process design, experimentation, and integratio...
From Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
About Joshua Gans
Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb are professors at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
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Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb are professors at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
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