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Power and Prediction with Joshua Gans

"Prediction is only useful if it's going to change something that you do. You wouldn't check your weather forecast app every day if it didn't help inform your clothing or routine. Prediction has to inform a decision."

Joshua Gans is a Professor of Strategic Management and the holder of the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He is also the Chief Economist of the University’s Creative Destruction Lab.

In 2018, together with Ajay Agrawal and Avi Goldfarb, he published Prediction Machines, an exploration of how basic tools from economics provide clarity about the AI revolution and a basis for action by leaders.

The trio’s latest book, “Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence” explains the economics of A.I. through the lens of decision systems.

In conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute, Joshua discusses how the transformational potential of A.I. is only unlocked if decision systems are reconsidered holistically, mirroring the pattern observed in previous technological revolutions like the application of steam power, electricity, or digital communication.

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