300 Eisenhower Fellows and International Experts to convene October 12-14
Richard Boyd, co-founder and CEO of Ultisim, a leading digital twin and simulation learning company, will explore the risks and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence during a plenary panel at the Eisenhower Fellowships 70th Anniversary World Forum in San Francisco (October 12-14, 2023).
The gathering will celebrate the organization’s distinguished history with more than 300 Eisenhower Fellows and international thought leaders. Among others, Boyd will be joined by Melinda Gates, winner of the 2023 Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Leadership and Service, former U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, former U.S. House member Jane Harman, former PBS and CBS journalist Ray Suarez, and former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman.
The world forum’s theme is Global Leaders Confronting Global Challenges: What
Works? and will feature the rich multi-disciplinary expertise of the organization’s global network with panel discussions on a variety of subjects at the top of every nation’s agenda.
The plenary session Preparing for an AI Future will explore the implications of AI from technology, social, and policy perspectives and how it will impact all aspects of our lives in the future.
Boyd is a serial entrepreneur, tech consultant, celebrated author, and sought-after speaker on virtual worlds, computer gaming, machine learning, and human/computer interfaces. Boyd and his teams work with a wide array of industries including energy, healthcare, defense, education, and motion pictures. He was a recent XPRIZE semifinalist for his Community Confidence COVID-19 machine learning dashboard.
Boyd will co-present with Sanjay Podder, Managing Director and Global Lead of Technology, Sustainability, and Innovation at Accenture, Rana el Kaliouby, Deputy Chief Executive Office at Smart Eye, and James O’Shea, the veteran journalist and author. O’Shea was editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, where he spent many years overseeing the Tribune’s foreign news staff. He has recently been named chairman of the board of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN).
“We are living in the Simulation Century, the first time in human history where we can manifest our ideas in visible, manipulable form and test them against reality,” said Boyd. “These AI models can serve as societal blueprints towards which we can build and can serve to warn us away from steps towards decline or destruction.”
Other panels will focus on ensuring food security, the challenge of public health in a time of pandemics, global peace and stability, climate change, civic engagement, and the impact of disinformation in eroding trust in our institutions.
“Modeling and simulating all of the dimensions of a community, we can then toy with the input levers and knobs of social policy and investment, of government incentives and punishments,” said O’Shea. “Combined with the deeply modeled and simulated human behaviors, we can peer into the future to see the first, second, third, and beyond consequences of those policies and actions.”
The Eisenhower Fellowships identifies, empowers, and connects innovative leaders through a transformative fellowship experience and lifelong engagement in a global network of dynamic change agents committed to creating a world more peaceful, prosperous, and just.