前沿資訊 /
數聯惠法平臺最新推出欄目，以世界各行業先進報刊、精英雜誌作為原文引用來源，在法律、財經、金融與科技的交叉領域進行檢索，篩選收集行業的前沿資訊，最終翻譯整合進行專題推送，共同了解大數據時代、科技時代、人工智慧時代的行業發展新動向。
【前言資訊004】本期內容來自美國全國經濟研究局工作文件、《Harvard Business Review》以及《Knowledge@Wharton》共計三篇前沿資訊文章，分別與Currency Competition（貨幣競爭）、AI（人工智慧）以及Cambridge Analytica Scandal（劍橋分析醜聞）有關。
01 / Can Currency Competition Work?
貨幣競爭能奏效嗎？
NBER Working Paper
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde & Daniel Sanches
Can competition among privately issued fiat currencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum work? Only sometimes. To show this, the authours build a model of competition among privately issued fiat currencies. The authors modify the current workhorse of monetary economics, the Lagos-Wright environment, by including entrepreneurs who can issue their own fiat currencies in order to maximize their utility. Results show that there exists an equilibrium in which price stability is consistent with competing private monies, but also that there exists a continuum of equilibrium trajectories with the property that the value of private currencies monotonically converges to zero. These latter equilibria disappear, however, when the authors introduce productive capital. The study also investigates the properties of hybrid monetary arrangements with private and government monies, of automata issuing money, and the role of network effects.
私人發行的法定貨幣（如比特幣或以太坊）之間的競爭能奏效嗎？答案是：只是在有時候有效。為了證明這一點，作者建立了私人發行的法定貨幣之間的競爭模型。作者修改了當前的貨幣經濟學、Lagos-Wright環境，包括企業家誰可以發行自己的法定貨幣，以最大限度地發揮其效用。結果表明，存在價格穩定與競爭性私有貨幣相一致的均衡，但也存在具有私人貨幣價值單調收斂到零的性質的均衡軌跡的連續性。然而，當作者引入生產資本時，後者的平衡消失了。該研究還研究了私人貨幣與政府貨幣混合貨幣安排的性質、自動發行貨幣以及網絡效應的作用。
02 / A Simple Tool to Start Making Decisions with the Help of AI
簡單工具借力人工智慧開始做決策
Harvard Business Review, April 17, 2018
Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans & Avi Goldfarb
Recent developments in AI are about lowering the cost of prediction. Better predictions matter when you make decisions in the face of uncertainty, as every business does, constantly. But how do you think through what it would take to incorporate a prediction machine into your decision-making process? In teaching this subject to MBA graduates at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the authors have introduced a simple decision-making tool: the AI Canvas. Each space on the canvas contains one of the requirements for machine-assisted decision making, beginning with a prediction. To explain how the AI Canvas works, the authors use an example crafted during one of their AI strategy workshops: home security.
AI最近的發展是關於降低預測成本的。當你面對不確定性時，更好的預測很重要，因為每個企業都在不斷地做出決定。但是你如何看待將預測機器融入到決策過程中所需要的呢？在多倫多大學羅特曼管理學院MBA畢業生的教學中，作者介紹了一個簡單的決策工具：AI畫布。畫布上的每個空間包含機器輔助決策的需求之一，從預測開始。為了解釋AI畫布是如何工作的，作者使用了一個AI策略研討會中的示例：家庭安全。
03 / Why the Cambridge Analytica Scandal Is a Watershed Moment for Social Media
為什麼劍橋分析醜聞是社交媒體的分水嶺
Knowledge@Wharton, Mar 22, 2018
Serious concerns have arisen over how social media firms guard the privacy of their users』 personal data, and how the analytics of such data can influence voter preferences and turnout. What this scandal demonstrates, however, is that our online behavior exposes a lot about our personality, fears and weaknesses – and that this information can be used for influencing our behavior. What consumers may be unaware of is how the advertiser determines what they’re looking to buy, and the Cambridge Analytica exposé shows a tiny part of this world. We’re experiencing a watershed moment with regard to social media where people are now beginning to realize that social media is not just either a fun plaything or a nuisance. It can have potentially real consequences in society.
社交媒體公司如何保護用戶個人數據的隱私，以及這些數據的分析如何影響選民的偏好和投票率，引起了人們的廣泛關注。然而，這場醜聞表明，我們的網上行為暴露了我們的個性、恐懼和弱點，而且這些信息可以用來影響我們的行為。消費者可能不知道的是廣告商是如何決定他們要買什麼，而劍橋分析公司的exposé（管理開啟的視窗的工具）則顯示了這個世界的一小部分。對於社交媒體來說，我們正經歷著一個分水嶺，人們開始意識到社交媒體不僅是一個有趣的玩物，還是一個討厭的東西。它可能在社會中產生潛在的實際後果。