Skip to content

The Future of Technology: Benefits and Risks

Published:
May 24, 2014
Author:
admin

Contents

This event was held Saturday May 24, 2014 at 7pm in MIT auditorium 10-250 – see videotranscript and photos below.

The coming decades promise dramatic progress in technologies from synthetic biology to artificial intelligence, with both great benefits and great risks. Please watch the video below for a fascinating discussion about what we can do now to improve the chances of reaping the benefits and avoiding the risks, moderated by Alan Alda and featuring George Church (synthetic biology), Ting Wu (personal genetics), Andrew McAfee(second machine age, economic bounty and disparity), Frank Wilczek (near-term AI and autonomous weapons) and Jaan Tallinn (long-term AI and singularity scenarios).

  • Alan Alda is an Oscar-nominated actor, writer, director, and science communicator, whose contributions range from M*A*S*H to Scientific American Frontiers.
  • George Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, initiated the Personal Genome Project, and invented DNA array synthesizers.
  • Andrew McAfee is Associate Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business and author of the New York Times bestseller The Second Machine Age.
  • Jaan Tallinn is a founding engineer of Skype and philanthropically supports numerous research organizations aimed at reducing existential risk.
  • Frank Wilczek is a physics professor at MIT and a 2004 Nobel laureate for his work on the strong nuclear force.
  • Ting Wu is a professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Personal Genetics Education project.
Photos from the talk
This content was first published at futureoflife.org on May 24, 2014.

About the Future of Life Institute

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a global non-profit with a team of 20+ full-time staff operating across the US and Europe. FLI has been working to steer the development of transformative technologies towards benefitting life and away from extreme large-scale risks since its founding in 2014. Find out more about our mission or explore our work.

Our content

Related content

Other posts about 

If you enjoyed this content, you also might also be interested in:

AIS Program

Augmented Intelligence Summit Program We are so thrilled that you have chosen to spend next weekend with us at AIS, […]
22 March, 2019

Augmented Intelligence Summit Speakers

Augmented Intelligence Summit Speakers Anthony Aguirre, PhD UC Santa Cruz | Future of Life Institute | Foundational Questions Institute Anthony […]
22 February, 2019

Augmented Intelligence Summit

Augmented Intelligence Summit Steering the Future of AI March 28 – 31, 2019 | 1440 Multiversity | Tuition $495 Today […]
24 January, 2019

BAI Videos

Videos from the Beneficial AI Conference
21 February, 2017
Our content

Some of our events

See some of the events we have hosted:

Augmented Intelligence Summit

Steering the Future of AI
Date:
March 28, 2019
March 31, 2019
Location:
Multiversity, Scotts Valley, California

Beneficial AGI 2019

BENEFICIAL AGI 2019 After our Puerto Rico AI conference in 2015 and our Asilomar Beneficial AI conference in 2017, we […]
Date:
January 2, 2019
April 7, 2019
Location:
Puerto Rico
Our events

Sign up for the Future of Life Institute newsletter

Join 40,000+ others receiving periodic updates on our work and cause areas.
cloudmagnifiercrossarrow-up linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram