Yegor Tkachenko

Yegor Tkachenko is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, specializing in the Marketing Division. His expertise spans Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Applied Machine Learning, with a focus on developing robust, scalable decision-making systems that balance efficiency with ethical considerations.

Dr. Tkachenko's educational background includes:

• PhD in Computational Marketing from Columbia Business School (2022), co-advised by Prof. Asim Ansari and Prof. Kamel Jedidi
• MS in Operations Research from Stanford University (2016)
• BS in International Business from Taras Shevchenko University (2012)

His research interests center on AI applications in marketing, including deep learning, reinforcement learning, convex optimization, and recommender systems. Dr. Tkachenko is particularly interested in the ethical use of personal information and the design of systems that can make intelligent decisions while respecting privacy. His recent work explores the predictability of personal information from facial images (published in Nature Scientific Reports 2023) and methods for optimizing consumer questionnaires using deep reinforcement learning.

Dr. Tkachenko has received significant attention for his research, including heated discussion on Hacker News regarding his work on AI consciousness and ethics. His facial image analysis research generated energized book coverage and blog discussions, highlighting its societal relevance and potential implications for data privacy.

His notable recognitions include:

• ICML 2024 publication on AI consciousness and ethics
• Nature Scientific Reports 2023 publication on facial image analysis
• Work featured on Hacker News and in video blog coverage

As an educator, Dr. Tkachenko teaches 'Python Programming for Data Science' at Columbia Business School. He has authored educational materials including 'Python, Deep Learning, and LLMs: A Crash Course for Complete Beginners' (Amazon 2025) and 'Entrepreneur's Bad Advice: How to Get Rich' (Amazon 2019). His students benefit from his practical industry experience at BlackRock and his research background at Stanford's Intelligent Systems Laboratory.

Dr. Tkachenko maintains several practical applications of his research through pet projects including www.firstimpression.ai (predicting personal data from facial images), www.passportsizephoto.com (AI passport photo maker), and a framework for deep reinforcement learning. These projects demonstrate his commitment to translating theoretical concepts into real-world tools while exploring the boundaries of AI capabilities.