Prof. of Digital Economy @CarnegieMellon @HeinzCollege
Pittsburgh
Joined October 2013
- Tweets626
- Following1.3K
- Followers3.4K
- Likes62.3K
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
Given how out-of-nowhere it seems to many, it is astonishing that there was a small group of people who predicted with remarkable accuracy everything that is happening in AI today a decade ago (@kevinroose shows this in The AGI Chronicles). Many are now very rich and/or powerful
I love John Urschel's take on AI use in math research. He used GPT Astra to solve a decades-old AI problem and is optimistic about AI use in scientific research. His take: AI can solve a problem, but there is still value/ joy in understanding the "why of things".
wsj.com/sports/football/john…
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
We're hiring a Research Scientist in AI & Economics on the AI x Economy team @Google!
Come study how AI is changing the economy. Work with folks like James Manyika, Fabien Curto Millet, @alexolegimas, @AnuMadgavkar, Zanna Iscenko, @m_codreanu, @JMateosGarcia, @RMaria_drc, @andrewjkoh, @arthurturrell and an amazing slate of external collaborators. Publish what you find. Link below:
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
Check out our new paper (and Arthur's excellent thread) on how scientists are using AI! More to come here as well.
@m_codreanu @alexolegimas @JMateosGarcia
Today @Google, we published work led by @m_codreanu on AI in Science, drawing on 15 million Gemini interactions, 2,600 specialised AI models & a 600-scientist survey. What did we find about how AI is changing science? Read on...
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
No country on Earth assimilates better than America. These are football obsessed 2nd gen immigrant kids wearing cowboy hats, crushing beers, throwing up horns, and celebrating one of the greatest comebacks in school history.
THIS is why America rules the world.
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
Partly true, @econcallum, but measured GDP will understate gains from free digital goods as shown by @erikbryn, @avi_collis and others. My summary:
youtube.com/watch?v=8oAhTgnq…
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
My intro to quant marketing phd course starts next week. Updated syllabus here: avigoldfarb.com/s/Syllabus_R…
Great summary of several of my papers by @ProfDavidDeming, making the point that generative AI is already generating large consumer welfare gains that we are not properly measuring.
How much would someone have to pay you to give up every generative AI tool for a month?
For the typical American, the answer is about $11. But one in eight people wouldn’t give up AI for a month even if you paid them $500. That might be the most interesting statistic in economics right now. At least I think so, because almost none of the value people say they are getting from AI appears in GDP numbers.
Everybody focuses on how AI will affect jobs and productivity in the workplace. Those are important questions, but they are missing a big part of the story, which is the impact on our personal lives. Is AI saving you time at home? Helping you make better decisions? Is it making you happier?
These consumer welfare gains aren't directly priced in the market. Right now, almost all of that hidden value is flowing to you for free. And I hate to say it, but I don’t think that will last. Don’t shoot the messenger.
New episode of The Context Window out today.
youtu.be/8oAhTgnqe-k
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
We added work by @d_vidnguyen, @erikbryn, @avi_collis, @eggers_felix, @SophiaKazinnik, & @jeffwang1840 to the AI Economic Indicators @DigEconLab.
How much would we have to pay you to give up AI tools for a month? These willingness to accept (WTA) stats measure consumer surplus.
Check out our new results on the consumer benefits from generative AI, and how these benefits compare to other goods 👇
This is really cool. There are a lot of non-AI-related big open questions that we still don't have good answers to, e.g., this one on properly accounting for quality-adjusted price changes when estimating economic growth.
Excited to share our new working paper: how much did the US standard of living really rise over the twentieth century — and when? With @bhwittenbrink
Using 5.1 million Sears catalog listings, we build a quality-adjusted price index for consumer goods, 1900–1990. Two headline findings: growth was much larger than official statistics imply, and its peak came before WWII, not after. (1/9)
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
Also have never seen @erikbryn be anything but constructive. Incredible how many great people have come out of his labs at MIT and Stanford over the years -- one of the best rates of any advisor/mentee.
"A former student marveled that they had 'never—literally never—seen Erik be mean to anyone.'"
I am pretty sure this quote is from me--or everyone in @erikbryn's orbit agrees.
Awesome to see him featured in the Atlantic!
theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
It extends to Erik’s people too. All the folks who’ve come up under his mentorship are remarkably well-adjusted, nice people.
"A former student marveled that they had 'never—literally never—seen Erik be mean to anyone.'"
I am pretty sure this quote is from me--or everyone in @erikbryn's orbit agrees.
Awesome to see him featured in the Atlantic!
theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
"A former student marveled that they had 'never—literally never—seen Erik be mean to anyone.'"
I am pretty sure this quote is from me--or everyone in @erikbryn's orbit agrees.
Awesome to see him featured in the Atlantic!
theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
Link to our paper here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.…
5/ Compared with the wider economy, AI revenues remain tiny. It’s worth noting that all previous general-purpose technologies behaved similarly.
Electricity made light ~99.97% cheaper, but this gain wasn’t recorded in the GDP. When evaluated against the value consumers place on AI, we estimate that it tops monthly genAI revenues by 30%.
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
🚨 New research alert! For the past few months, I've been a part-time visiting economics researcher at OpenAI. Excited to share the first public piece of work to come out of this, which uses data from Codex to document the ongoing and rapid shift to agentic AI.
Details below 👇
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
Interesting study by @erikbryn and @avi_collis showing big consumer welfare gains from AI. Reminds us that large portion of the economic value of AI will not show up in traditional economic indicators. digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/…
Avinash (Avi) Collis retweeted
Congratulations to Lab Digital Fellow Angela Aristidou, Digital Fellow @avi_collis, and Research Scientist @d_vidnguyen for being a part of @GoogleAI's inaugural group of global economic scholars!
ai.google/economy/ai-economy…
Our new paper on measuring consumer surplus from generative AI tools 👇
Bottom line: From 2025-26, total consumer surplus from generative AI chatbots in the US increased 53% (from $112B in 2025 to $172B in 2026), while the number of users increased 21%.
What is Generative AI Worth?
A new paper from @erikbryn, @avi_collis, @SophiaKazinnik and @d_vidnguyen estimates the consumer welfare impact of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude, suggesting substantial and rapidly growing gains.
Read here: digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/…