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Curriculum The Economics of Artificial Intelligence

The Economics of Artificial Intelligence

How the AI industry works - chips, data, open and closed models, market power, energy use, regulation, inequality, India's AI push and AI in science.

  1. How the AI Industry Is Organised The layers of the AI industry, from chips and cloud computing to models and applications, and where profits and power concentrate. 📄 Read-aloud
  2. Why AI Runs on GPUs Why graphics chips became the engine of artificial intelligence, how Nvidia came to dominate, and the race to build alternatives. 📄 Read-aloud
  3. Data: The Raw Material of AI Why AI models need vast amounts of data, the legal fights over using copyrighted work for training, and concerns about running out of high-quality data. 📄 Read-aloud
  4. Open vs Closed AI Models The difference between AI models whose inner workings are released publicly and those kept private, and the economic and safety arguments on each side. 📄 Read-aloud
  5. Will AI Be Dominated by a Few Firms? The forces that could concentrate AI in a handful of large companies, the forces pushing toward competition, and how regulators are responding. 📄 Read-aloud
  6. AI's Energy and Water Appetite How the data centres behind AI use growing amounts of electricity and water, the effects on power grids and climate goals, and how companies are responding. 📄 Read-aloud
  7. The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: Checkpoint 1 Quick checkpoint - five questions on the AI stack, chips, data, open models, market power and energy. 5 questions
  8. Regulating AI How governments are approaching AI regulation, from the European Union's risk-based AI Act to lighter-touch approaches, and the economic trade-offs involved. 📄 Read-aloud
  9. AI and Inequality Whether AI will widen or narrow gaps between workers, firms and countries, and what early evidence and theory suggest. 📄 Read-aloud
  10. India and AI India's strategy to build AI capabilities, from the IndiaAI Mission and shared computing to Indian-language models, and its advantages and challenges. 📄 Read-aloud
  11. AI Translation and Language Barriers How machine translation and speech technology are lowering language barriers to trade, services and information, and who benefits. 📄 Read-aloud
  12. AI in Science and Discovery How AI is accelerating scientific research, from predicting protein structures to discovering materials, and why this could matter for long-run growth. 📄 Read-aloud
  13. Managing AI Risks: An Economic View How economists think about the risks of AI, from misuse and accidents to concentration of power, using tools like externalities and public goods. 📄 Read-aloud

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