Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University and chair of Mason’s Mercatus Center, has published a new book: GOAT: Who is the Greatest Economist of all Time and Why Does it Matter? But GOAT is no ordinary book. Possibly the first major work of its kind, Cowen’s book comes equipped with a chat bot that uses AI, allowing the reader to ask questions, receive responses, and more.
“I call it a generative book,” Cowen says.
Cowen wrote most of the book’s 100,000-word manuscript over the pandemic, paving the way for future books of its kind. Last fall GOAT was published in GPT-4 and Claude 2, and Cowen explains that readers can ask it to summarize, ask for more context, ask for a multiple-choice exam on the contents, make an illustrated book—the possibilities are limitless.
“If you have a question that I don't cover, if you want a summary, if you don't want to read a particular chapter but you don't want to just skip it, you could say, ‘please summarize this chapter for me in 500 words, 1000 words, 10 words,’” he explained.
This semester, Cowen is using the book as the primary text for his ECON 895: History of Economic Thought course.
“Students will still ask me plenty of questions, but with this book it's like they also have the bottled version of the professor online,” he said. “And best yet, it’s free, so students don’t have to pay for it."
Economics doctoral student Anna Claire Flowers, says the book has encouraged a creative take on studying history of thought.
"The AI features paint historical characters in a realistic and relatable light," she said. "It breaks through barriers that can sometimes come with reading texts that are centuries old and reveals what I have in common with the authors, so it’s a great companion to reading any of the original works of the 'GOAT contenders.'"
Flowers, who is also a PhD fellow with the Mercatus Center and a graduate fellow with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, added that the ChatGPT feature is pretty "spot-on" when it comes to conversing about ideas and historical figures as Cowen might.
For those who prefer traditional books, GOAT can be downloaded as a PDF or on a Kindle, but Cowen hopes that readers will take advantage of the AI technology.
“I think this is the future of education—this idea that the student can talk to the book when the professor is not around,” he said. “We’re just beginning to learn what we can do with these tools."
So who exactly is the greatest economist of all time? You’ll have to explore Cowen’s book, available here free of charge, to find out.
February 16, 2024