Ai Salon: Purpose & Promise: What Are We Building AI For?

​Join an intimate gathering of thoughtful minds to probe one of the defining questions of our age: Why are we building artificial intelligence?

​From the race for trillion-dollar valuations and geopolitical power plays to the dream of superhuman artificial general intelligence, AI promises both utopia and dystopia.

​One the one hand, AI could accelerate drug discovery, invent new material wonders, and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. Humanoid robots could perform manual labour, while autonomous vehicles transport us over land, sea, and sky.

​On the other hand, AI can be used to surveil, manipulate, deceive, impersonate, and distract, while undermining our ability to think critically. Meanwhile, the energy demands of tomorrow's data centres threaten to derail our climate goals.

​How do we navigate this future?

​This salon will cut through hype and fear to explore motivations, trade-offs, and the path to human flourishing (or peril). Come ready to challenge assumptions, share contrarian perspectives, and collectively imagine how we might steer this transformative technology toward the greatest good.

​Many thanks to MobSquad and Panache Ventures for sponsoring this event.

​This Ai Salon is hosted by Mikhail Klassen, a Senior AI Engineer at Planet, where his work focuses on fusing satellite imagery with AI for understanding our changing world.

​The Ai Salon is a community founded in San Francisco focused on intimate, small-sized group discussions on the sociological, economic, cultural, and philosophical impacts and meaning of AI developments.