The advance of AI is a game-changing opportunity for all organizations.  It’d a revolution which has been quietly unfolding over the last half-century snd is now poised for yet more rapid acceleration. In this session, Saffo explores the current state of AI to identify immediate opportunities and challenges and trace out the shape of the revolutionary surprises to come.

Cyberspace is the world's new frontier in the literal sense of the word - it is new, unpopulated territory that we are now rushing to inhabit. And just like previous frontier expansions, first come the explorers, then the settlers, commerce, government - and crooks.  One can understand specific elements such as Vr, the Metaverse, crypto, NFTs, and robotics only by viewing them through a larger contextual lens that reveals the larger strategic implications as well as the cross-impacts between these elements that will create specific entrepreneural opportunities.

Paul Saffo is a Silicon Valley-based Forecaster with over three decades of experience helping corporate and governmental clients understand and respond to the dynamics of large-scale, long-term change. In this talk, he will discuss the major technology trends, with a focus on what to expect in the future, where the best opportunities can be found, and how these components affect both public and private sector partners. 

Instinct tells us to pull in and focus on the present when crises hit and uncertainty overwhelms us. But this instinct is as wrong as the instinct that tells us to turn against a skid on an icy road. Like driving, forecasting can be learned, and one need not be a rocket scientist in order to see clearly into the future. In fact a few simple heuristics can go a long way towards making sense of what lies ahead. 

May you live in exponential times. This is the 21st century version of the oft-told Chinese proverb about the blessing (and curse) of living in interesting times. The exponential advance of digital technology continues to create vast opportunities and even vaster disruption, but larger exponential surprises lurk just over the horizon. Combined, these forces are poised to reshape the metropolitan landscape as profoundly as the automobile, television and commercial aviation changed the face of our cities half a century ago. The result will be maddening uncertainty, but for innovators who keep their head – and keep their head up—this shift presents vast opportunities.