The economics of artificial intelligence and machine learning

Live: Tuesday 22 June 14:45 (London), 09:45 (Eastern), 06:45 (Pacific)

Following a year of unparalleled disruption, loosening of monetary and fiscal policy has become the new normal and many long-term economic and societal changes remain uncertain. As vaccination programmes pick up pace amid talk of policy normalisation, OMFIF and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia are hosting a series of seminars to discuss the Federal Reserve’s priorities. Over five days, Fed Week will cover topics from the economics of artificial intelligence, a green recovery, central bank digital currency, financial stability, macroeconomic developments and how all of this is feeding into the decisions the Fed is making.

All participants will have the chance to participate in the interactive Q&A session, by submitting your questions via the Q&A function.

Enter your details to receive OMFIF US focused content in your inbox:

Forthcoming meetings in the Fed Week series:

Day three 23 June: The impact of digital currency on the financial system

In session three of the series, the panel will cover:

• The wider impact and potential benefits of distributed ledger technology on the financial system
• DLT design choices, the use of smart contracts or ‘programmable money’ to enable interoperability across blockchain networks within and across borders
• The ideal technological infrastructure to operate central bank digital currencies
• The initiative at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to determine design requirements for a US-based CBDC
• The extent that scalability, the balance between privacy and decentralisation, and interoperability are holding back adoption of DLT
• How DLT can interact with existing technologies or vendors
• Underlying policy and political preferences concerning privacy, data administration, market power, cybersecurity and the division of labour between the public and private sectors

Speakers:

Day four 24 June: Rebuilding sustainably and equitably

In session four of the series, the panel will cover:

• How three crises – health, economic and social – are converging into one difficult moment in American history
• What our current economic challenges are and what bold action could look like
• Managing the physical risk climate change poses to the US financial infrastructure and the role of policy and regulation
• Protecting the economically vulnerable communities that are least equipped to cope
• How longer-term shifts in temperature and other climate hazards are impacting productivity and performance across the economy and the role of US financial regulators in managing the risks
• How can we build a society that delivers on the promise of equal opportunity and inclusive success and the Federal Reserve’s ability to change this landscape
• Focusing on investments that leverage the talent of everyone and contribute to the economy’s long-term growth prospects
• ‘Opportunity infrastructure’ and the building blocks that help individuals maximise their potential

Speakers:

Day five 25 June: Financial stability

In session five of the series, the discussion will cover:

• The current state of the US economy
• Keeping the wheels turning through the rest of the Covid-19 crisis
• The threat of mounting business debt and bankruptcies
• Banks and capitalisation
• Measures to strengthen the recovery once the health crisis passes
• Volatility in asset prices
• Funding risks and leverage in the financial sector

Speakers:

Speakers:

Simon Freyaldenhoven, Research Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Simon Freyaldenhoven is a machine learning economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Freyaldenhoven works on dimensionality reduction and factor models. He also works on causal inference in panel data models and has lately been particularly interested in discrimination and algorithmic fairness.

Amit Gandhi, Professor of Economics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Amit Gandhi is professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school. Gandhi joined the University of Pennsylvania from the University of Wisconsin and Microsoft. He has done important work on methodological model identification of demand and production functions and in auction models.

Nitin Gaur, Director, Digital Asset Labs, IBM

Nitin Gaur is director of IBM’s World Wire digital asset labs. Gaur founded IBM’s blockchain labs. Prior to this, he was chief technology officer of mobile payments and enterprise mobile solutions at IBM. He led the application infrastructure portfolio of IBM middleware. Gaur is also an IBM distinguished engineer.

Moderated by Patricia Haas Cleveland, President, US Operations, OMFIF

Patricia Haas Cleveland is president of US operations at OMFIF. She has had a decades-long career in international finance, spanning roles in the government, multilateral development banks and Wall Street. She began her career as an international economist at the US Treasury in Washington, where she served as Treasury’s China economist and helped to establish the US-China joint economic committee. She subsequently joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London and served on the president’s task force under Jacques de Larosière. Haas Cleveland later joined Lehman Brothers in London as head of the European corporate advisory division and then moved to New York where she established and headed Lehman Brothers’ capital markets prime services strategic advisory group for hedge fund clients. After Lehman Brothers, Patricia was a consultant for cross-border Chinese investment before joining Citigroup as a managing director in the institutional clients group, focused on the public sector and development banks. She later served as financial adviser to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing during its pre-launch stage.

In partnership with: