Marian Miner Cook
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The AI Delusion

Tue, September 18, 2018
Dinner Program
Gary Smith

Arguably the computer revolution may be even more life-changing than the industrial revolution, and indeed many fear that super-intelligent machines will protect themselves by enslaving or even eliminating humans. Gary Smith, professor of economics at Pomona College argues that the real danger however is not that computers are smarter than us, but that we think computers are smarter than us and therefore trust computers to make important decisions for us.  

Gary Smith is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics at Pomona College. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and was an assistant professor there for seven years. He has won two teaching awards and written (or co-authored) more than eighty academic papers and thirteen books. His book Standard Deviation: Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie with Statistics was a London Times Book of the Week and debunks a variety of dubious and misleading statistical practices. His most recent book, The AI Delusion, extols the value of human judgment in a world where big decisions are more and more frequently left to computers. His statistical and financial research has been featured in various media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, WYNC, WBBR Bloomberg Radio, Motley Fool, Scientific American, Forbes, MarketWatch, MoneyCentral.msn, NewsWeek and BusinessWeek.

Smith’s research interests lie in financial markets, especially the stock market, and the application of statistical analysis to finance and sports.

View Video: YouTube with Gary Smith

Food for Thought: Podcast with Gary Smith

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