One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three.

>> Hey guys, what are you doing?

>> Hello.
I've got a friend over here. Who are you? >> I'm Kevin. >> That's nice. I'm Yoav.
>> I'm mad. I guess we ought to play a new game. >> What do you suggest? >> How
about some blackjack? >> I could do that. I'm nervous. I'm nervous so let's just
play for
low stakes, okay like say $1000? >> [LAUGH] It's a deal.
Let's see who wins. >> All right, deal me in. All right, hit me
>> Okay, you want card? >> What are the rules again? >> Well, you try and get the
21,
anybody who gets to 21 wins, if you go over 21 you're going to lose. >> I see. I
don't know I guess I'll stay. >> Do you want a card? >> No I guess I'll stay with
what I have. >> I'm going to take one more. I'm over.
>> I'm going to stay. >> So what happens now? >> Well,
you guys figure out who's got the most. >> Alright, I've got 19, Yoav. Try and beat
that. What do you know! Look what I got! I got 21. >> Blackjack! >> Well, good
thing we didn't play for
too much money. >> Another $1000 for Jav. >> Wait, I think there's some
other people watching us here. We ought to introduce ourselves
a little bit more formally. >> Well, I'll start. I'm Kevin.
I'm an Associate Professor of Computer Science at University of
British Columbia and Vancouver, Canada. My research is in artificial intelligence,
game theory, electronic commerce, and algorithms. >> I'm Matt Jackson. I'm a
Professor of Economics at
Stanford University, and I do research in game theory and social networks, and
a variety of microeconomic topics. >> And I'm Yoav Shoham. I'm also a professor
here at Stanford. Like Kevin, I'm also a computer
scientist in artificial intelligence, and electronic commerce and game theory. And
we're here to co-teach
the class on game theory. So maybe let's start by saying a little
bit about what game theory's about, and as importantly what it's not about. So
often we think about gain,
we don think about things such as rock, paper, scissors, or poker, or
sports games like soccer and baseball. But really game theory is
about all kinds of strategic interactions among self interested agents,
including those frivolous ones but also much more serious ones. Matt you're an
economist,
tell us more about serious games. >> Sure, game theory has become a really
essential tool to understanding
a lot of different interactions. Anything from auctions to people's
behavior in financial markets, even to international conflict,
to understanding political interactions. So it's become an essential part
of any social scientist's toolbox. And indeed,
it's actually used beyond that, so things like biology, predator-prey games,
a whole series of things. So It's really a fairly widely
applicable thing in any situation where there's competition,
strategic interaction. So there's a lot to cover here. >> But that makes sense, but
now, Kevin,
you and I are computer scientists. What are we doing here? Well, these days, game
theory is a really
hot area in computer science for really a couple of reasons. First of all,
computers have really turned into ways
of bringing different people together. And that's true whether you're thinking
about how to design networks, whether you're thinking about the keyword auctions
that make billions of dollars a year for Google. Whether you are thinking about
peer to peer file sharing or consumer focused things like Ebay. All these things,
if you really want to understand them, they require modelling self
interested participants and the way that they strategically
interact with each other. Separately, a lot of the problems that
economic game theorists like Matt think about, when they get bigger
they have computational dimensions. So as you want to solve these
problems in the real world, it's necessary to leverage ideas from
algorithms, complexity theory, and artificial intelligence to
make them work in practice. >> So
let's speak a little about our class. First, we set expectations where for
all these potential applications we're discussing our class will really be
very fundamental modelling tools here. We'll not attempt to advise people on how to
use it really
in the real world in any direct way. We'll only use examples by way of
illustrating the formal constructs. So let's speak a little
about the syllabus. >> Sure, so
the course run about seven weeks. It's really an introductory course, it doesn't
presume that people have
any experience in game theory before. It will assume a tiny bit of background
in probability and calculus but generally it should be accessible
to a pretty wide range of people. Our intention is just to show
people how are games structured, how do we think about strategic
interaction between people? We'll start with equilibrium notions,
we'll talk about incomplete information. We'll talk about timing, repeated games.
We'll also talk about
coalitional structures. So we have quite a bit of things to cover. But it should be
a very fun course. >> Kevin, you want to speak a little
bit about some of the mechanics and what people need to do and so on? >> Sure.
There's a lot to this course besides videos, some of which is
graded and some of which isn't. So, on the ungraded side, we'll have quizzes to
test
comprehension after the videos. We'll have review quizzes to help you
see if you've put everything together at the end of the course. And then there's
kind of sessions or
lab exercises where you can play games with other students and
discuss them afterwards. Then most of your grade will come
from problem sets and a final exam, each of which,
you'll only be able to take once, but you'll be able to take
on your own schedule. And in the end, you'll get a certificate
of completion that's signed by all of us. >> So and that will be a total of
about seven weeks, as we said. We should also mention that
this is a very large class. There's many tens of
thousands of students here. So we'll do our best to be
clear in our presentations, but a lot of it will involve help
among the students themselves. So there are online forums and
they're an essential part of the class. You really want to form study
groups to consult each other on the problem sets on the lectures. We do have TAs
that'll monitor the forums. Both TAs at British Columbia and at Stanford, as well
as community
TAs that have stepped up. But at the end of the day, it will only work if as
a community we all work together. Please, because the large numbers,
don't send us personal email. It's not that we don't
like to speak to you. We just won't be able to handle it. So, we won't be able to
respond. Similarly, there is, on the class website as well as on social media if
you want to kind of follow us personally
on our personal sites by all means. But know, please,
friend requests and so on again, the numbers are so
large we won't be able to respond. This is really going to be a fun class,
isn't it? >> Yeah I'm looking forward
to it should be a great time. >> You know I had a lot of
fun with that previous game. >> Yeah and actually think it's time for
Kevin and I to win some money back. >> Well, let's see how good you are. >> [LAUGH]
Okay.