How is artificial intelligence (AI) going to change social science and how is social science going to change how AI is used? This conference will bring together researchers using AI to address issues in social science, including, but not limited to using AI to enable the use of new types of data in social science applications (e.g., text or images), using algorithms to solve problems or enhance decision-making in different economically relevant applications (e.g., hiring, lending, medicine, education, criminal justice), understanding how to help humans use algorithmic decision-aids as effectively as possible, or different approaches to designing and deploying these tools fairly and ethically. This cross-disciplinary conference aims to facilitate dialogue and generate insights into innovative methodologies, novel datasets, and emerging technologies that can reshape our understanding of the world and push the boundaries of knowledge across disciplines and fields, including experts from economics, sociology, law, behavioral sciences, artificial intelligence, and more.

The dinner keynote on Thursday evening will be given by Susan Athey, while the closing keynote will be given by Sendhil Mullainathan.

This conference is invite-only. If you would like to attend or have any questions, please contact bfi-events@uchicago.edu.


HOTEL INFORMATION

The Becker Friedman Institute will book and cover hotel accommodations for event speakers at The Sophy Hotel. Conference participants may consider staying at University of Chicago’s Preferred Hotels on or near campus. If you have any questions regarding travel, please email bfi-events@uchicago.edu.

Agenda

Thursday, September 19, 2024
8:30 am–9:00 am

Registration and Breakfast

9:00 am–9:05 am

Opening Remarks

9:05 am–9:50 am

The Market Effects of Algorithms

Lindsey Raymond, Microsoft Research

9:50 am–10:35 am

Multidimensional Stereotypes Emerge Spontaneously when Exploration is Costly

Xuechunzi Bai, University of Chicago (Presenter)

Tom Griffiths, Princeton University

Susan Fiske, Princeton University

10:35 am–10:50 am

Break

10:50 am–11:35 pm

British Industrialization and Cultural Change: Evidence from the Use of Proverbs

Elliot Ash, ETH Zurich (Presenter)

Melanie Xue, London School of Economics and Political Science

11:35 am–12:20 pm

American Life Histories

David Lagakos, Boston University

Stelios Michalopoulos, Brown University

Hans-Joachim Voth, University of Zurich (Presenter)

12:20 pm–1:15 pm

Lunch

1st Floor Dining Room

1:15 pm–2:00 pm

Learning about AI

Kobbina Awuah, University of Zurich

Ursa Krenk, University of Zurich

David Yanagizawa-Drott, University of Zurich (Presenter)

2:00 pm–2:45 pm

Journalist Ideology and the Production of News: Evidence from Movers

Levi Boxell, Stanford University

Jacob Conway, University of Chicago (Presenter)

2:45 pm–3:00 pm

Break

3:00 pm–3:45 pm

Do You Hear What AI Hears? Leveraging AI and Field Experiments to Lessen Childhood Disparities

Majid Ahmadi, University of Chicago

Imrul Huda, University of Chicago

John A. List, University of Chicago

Arnoldo Müller-Molina, University of Chicago

Julie Pernaudet, University of Chicago (Presenter)

Dana L. Suskind, University of Chicago

3:45 pm–4:30 pm

Smiles in Profiles: Improving Fairness and Efficiency Using Estimates of User Preferences in Online Marketplaces

Susan Athey, Stanford University

Dean Karlan, Northwestern University

Emil Palikot, Stanford University (Presenter)

Yuan Yuan, Boston College

4:30 pm–5:15 pm

Automated Social Science: Language Models as Scientist and Subjects

John J. Horton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Benjamin Manning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Presenter)

Kehang Zhu, Harvard University

5:45 pm

Shuttle departs from David Rubenstein Forum to Conference Dinner

6:15 pm

Conference Dinner and Program

By Invitation Only.

Susan Athey, Stanford University

Friday, September 20, 2024
8:30 am–9:00 am

Breakfast

9:00 am–9:45 am

Machine Learning Who to Nudge: Causal vs. Predictive Targeting in a Field Experiment on Student Financial Aid Renewal

Susan Athey, Stanford University

Niall Keleher, Stanford University 

Jann Spiess, Stanford University (Presenter)

9:45 am–10:30 am

Separation of Church and State Curricula? Examining Public and Religious Private School Textbooks

Anjali Adukia, University of Chicago (Presenter)

Emileigh Harrison, University of Chicago

10:30 am–11:15 am

AI for the Poorest Schools: Evidence from Sierra Leone

Paul Atherton, Fab Inc. and Fab Data

Daniel Bjorkegren, Columbia University (Presenter)

Jun Ho Choi, Columbia University

Oliver Garrod, University of Glasgow

Andrew Joyce-Gibbons, Fab Inc.

Miriam Mason-Sesay, EducAid Sierra Leone

11:15 am–11:30 am

Break

11:30 am–12:15 pm

The Effect of Tutor CoPilot for Virtual Tutoring Sessions: Testing an Intervention to Improve Instruction with Expert-Guided LLM-generated Remediation Language

Dorottya Demszky, Stanford University

Susanna Loeb, Stanford University

Ana Ribeiro, Stanford University

Carly Robinson, Stanford University

Rose Wang, Stanford University (Presenter)

12:15 pm–1:00 pm

Clinical Notes Reveal Physician Fatigue

Chao-Chun Hsu, University of Chicago

Ziad Obermeyer, University of California, Berkeley

Chenhao Tan, University of Chicago (Presenter)

1:00 pm–2:00 pm

Lunch

1st Floor Dining Room

2:00 pm–3:15 pm

Keynote Lecture

Sendhil Mullainathan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3:15 pm

Conference Concludes