Abstract
This chapter provides a brief overview of computational thinking inEconomics and Finance. It explores the nexus between developments in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Economics. It sketches Shu-Heng Chen’s contributions to the field and gives a panoramic view of the chapters included in this volume.
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Notes
- 1.
Herbert Simon is the only person so far to win both the Turing Award and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Allen Newell, Cliff Shaw, and Herbert Simon developed one of the earliest programmes—Logic Theorist—which utilised insights from problem solving skills of human beings, especially heuristics, to prove theorems in Principia Mathematica. The foundational paper of the field, however, was by Alan Turing (1950). Also, see Velupillai (2018).
- 2.
It is worth distinguishing here between concerns that relate to efficiency and effectivity. As (Simon, 1983, p. 27) points out:
Artificial intelligence has two goals. First, AI is directed toward getting computers to be smart and do smart things so that human beings don’t have to do them. And second, AI (sometimes called cognitive simulation, or information processing psychology) is also directed at using computers to simulate human beings, so that we can find out how humans work and perhaps can help them to be a little better in their work.
- 3.
There is now a growing literature on the impact of AI on various aspects of the economy and society, see Agrawal et al. (2019).
- 4.
Velupillai’s contribution to this volume provides more details about Shu’s time at UCLA.
- 5.
To this list, we would also add his love for spicy noodles!.
- 6.
Especially, whenever the Deans need to take international visitors around the School for a guided tour!.
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Venkatachalam, R., Wang, S.G. (2023). Computational Thinking in Economics and Finance: Introductory Remarks. In: Venkatachalam, R. (eds) Artificial Intelligence, Learning and Computation in Economics and Finance . Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15294-8_1
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