Artificial Intelligence, Economics, and Industrial Organization
Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have been around for many years. However, in the last 5 years, remarkable progress has been made using multilayered neural networks in diverse areas such as image recognition, speech recognition, and machine translation. AI is a general purpose technology that is likely to impact many industries. In this chapter I consider how machine learning availability might affect the industrial organization of both firms that provide AI services and industries that adopt AI technology. My intent is not to provide an extensive overview of this rapidly-evolving area, but instead to provide a short summary of some of the forces at work and to describe some possible areas for future research.
Published Versions
Artificial Intelligence, Economics, and Industrial Organization, Hal Varian. in The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfarb. 2019