The Invisible Hand of Prediction

  • Speaker
  • A portrait photo of Mortiz Hardt.Moritz Hardt, Ph.D.Director Social Foundations of Computation, Max Planck Institute
Date & Time


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Presidential Lectures are free public colloquia centered on four main themes: Biology, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and Neuroscience and Autism Science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are intended to foster discourse and drive discovery among the broader NYC-area research community. We invite those interested in the topic to join us for this weekly lecture series.

Algorithmic predictions steer markets, drive consumption, shape communities and alter life trajectories. However, the theory and practice of machine learning have long neglected the often-invisible causal forces of prediction. A recent conceptual framework, called performative prediction, draws attention to the fundamental difference between learning from a population and steering a population through predictions.

In this lecture, after covering some emerging insights on performative prediction, Moritz Hardt will turn to an application of performativity to the question of power in digital economies. Traditional economic concepts struggle with identifying anti-competitive patterns in digital platforms, not least due to the difficulty of defining the market. Next, he will introduce the notion of performative power that sidesteps the complexity of market definition and directly measures how much a firm can benefit from steering consumer behavior. Finally, he will discuss the normative implications of high performative power, its connections to measures of market power in economics, and its relationship to ongoing antitrust debates.


To attend this in-person event, you will need to register in advance and provide:

● Acceptable proof of vaccination (vaccine card/certificate, a copy or photo of vaccine card/certificate or electronic NYS Excelsior Pass or NJ Docket Pass)
● Photo ID
● Eventbrite ticket confirmation email with QR code
● Simons Foundation Health Screening Questionnaire approval email

Guests are expected to complete these requirements each time they visit the Simons Foundation and entrance will not be granted without this documentation.

On-site registration will not be permitted. Walk-in entry will be denied.

About the Speaker

A portrait photo of Mortiz Hardt.

Hardt is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Before joining the institute, he was an associate professor for electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. His research contributes to the scientific foundations of machine learning and algorithmic decision-making from a social perspective. He is known for his work on fairness, privacy, scientific validity and strategic behavior in algorithmic systems. Hardt co-founded the Workshop on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Machine Learning. He is a co-author of the textbooks “Fairness and Machine Learning: Limitations and Opportunities” (MIT Press) and “Patterns, Predictions, and Actions: Foundations of Machine Learning” (Princeton University Press).

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