Revolutionizing Decisions: Eric Horvitz’s AI Meets the Classroom

How Eric Horvitz is Changing the Game with AI

In March, the DEF team attended the Society of Decision Professionals (SDP) Conference in Vancouver, BC, and left inspired by Dr. Eric Horvitz’s groundbreaking work at the intersection of AI and decision science.

Here’s what you need to know:

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🔹 Who is Eric Horvitz ?

• Microsoft's Chief Scientific Officer: a pioneer at the crossroads of artificial intelligence and decision theory.
• A former Stanford University doctoral student of Professor Ronald A. Howard—whose work deeply influences DEF’s Decision Quality framework.
• A key figure pushing forward how decision analysis principles shape the future of AI.

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🔹 How AI is Changing Decision-Making:

AI is increasingly capable of supporting multiple phases of decision analysis.

Advances allow AI to help with:

• Refining relevant actions and outcomes
• Aiding preference assessments
• Enhancing information gathering

“While it’s still early days for generalist AI models in decision analysis, the long-term potential is significant” — Eric Horvitz

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🔹 Introducing Decision Insights VIII

Horvitz showcased his new tool: Decision Insights VIII, a custom GPT model available through OpenAI.

It helps users:

• Frame their decisions clearly
• Identify key values and alternatives
• Gather and organize critical information
• Visualize decisions with tables, charts, and probability models

🔹 How This Connects to DEF:

Horvitz’s vision builds directly on the same Decision Quality principles DEF teaches
His work reinforces DEF’s mission to equip students with deep, ethical decision-making skills
Inspired by his approach, DEF is actively exploring ways to integrate AI tools into our curriculum (read more about our first AI lesson below!)

👉 Explore the tool here: Decision Insights VIII on OpenAI

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Bringing AI Decision Making into the Classroom

Using Decision Insights VIII, the custom GPT model developed by Eric Horvitz, students explored a highly relevant question: “Should I take a gap year?”

The lesson guided students to interact directly with the AI tool to brainstorm options, prioritize values, evaluate trade-offs, and build personalized action plans. With each step, students worked through the full Decision Quality Chain, using prompts from the AI to explore each element more deeply.

The structured support from Decision Insights VIII made the learning process more approachable and thoughtful—bringing decision skills to the classroom in a hands-on and modern way.

After the lesson, one student responded in the feedback form that they, "learned you can use it to help with decisions in life like telling your parents about a college you want to go to."

At DEF, we’re excited about the potential of AI tools like Decision Insights VIII to enhance students’ understanding of Decision Quality and strengthen their confidence in making thoughtful, informed decisions.

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👉 Try Out the AI Tool for Yourself!

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