It has long been recognized that networked services contain weak-link vulnerabilities. That is, the performance of any frontier device depends on the performance of every contributing component and service. This column focuses on one such phenomenon, which goes by the label “congestion.” No, this is not a new type of allergy, but, as with a …
10 Years Ago Today
It is 10 years ago today that the most significant consumer technological innovation, possibly of the last 50 years, was introduced. Here is Steve Jobs introducing it: If you have never seen it, you should watch. The original iPhone is a shadow of its counter-parts today. But the design is essentially the same. All mobile …
Top Posts of 2016
As is traditional, here are the Top Posts of 2016 at Digitopoly The Simple Economics of Machine Intelligence The Entrepreneurship/Inequality Myth Adult colouring books reminds us that innovation lies outside economics Top Ten Open Questions for the Techno-Optimist What will it take to disrupt Facebook? Neither Uber nor Lyft believe that sharing is the future …
Top Ten digital events of 2016
Hello good readers! It is time once again for a retrospective look at the top ten digital events of 2016. And what a year it was – elections, political intrigue, hacking, and more! Some very impressive people and action deserve their just rewards, i.e., fifteen seconds of snarky comments. The award is called a Sally. …
What to Learn from US Govt Strategy on AI
[This post was co-authored with Ajay Agrawal and Avi Goldfarb. A shorter version was published in HBR Online on 21st December 2016. Also, the post does not review a new White House paper on AI and its impact released on 20th December 2016, that cites some posts on this blog.] On October 12, 2016, President …
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AI and Competition Policy
I participated at an interesting panel at an antitrust conference in Brussels today. I was about big data and whether it will be a problem for competition policy. This is something that has been widely discussed but there is little resolution on the issue. When it comes to the potential problems that arise from big …
Falling Costs: Two Non-Technical Papers
This is just a pointer to two new (non-technical) papers of mine that look at the implications of various falling costs associated with new technologies. The first is a much longer version of the blog post earlier this week on the simple economics of artificial intelligence. "Managing the Machines" co-authored with Ajay Agrawal and Avi …
Tesla's use restrictions for autonomous driving
At a conference last week on the sharing economy (video here), an audience member asked me about the following clause in Tesla's autonomous driving agreement: Please note also that using a self-driving Tesla for car sharing and ride hailing for friends and family is fine, but doing so for revenue purposes will only be permissible …
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The Simple Economics of Machine Intelligence
[This post was co-written with Ajay Agrawal and Avi Goldfarb and appeared in HBR.org on 17 November 2016] The year 1995 was heralded as the beginning of the “New Economy.” Digital communication was set to upend markets and change everything. But economists by and large didn’t buy into the hype. It wasn’t that we didn’t recognize …
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A Toast to Eli
Delivered on Nov. 12, on the occasion of Eli's Bar-Mitzvah. My dear son, awesome Eli. This may be the last time in the next few years I can get your attention for an uninterrupted five minutes. Sorry to do this in public. Try to smile. A Bar-Mitzvah traditionally marks the time for passing into adulthood. …
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