Fei-Fei Li
Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University
Byron Reese
Author, Entrepreneur & Futurist
AI & Humanity · Technology History · The Future of Work
Speaking Fee
Fee on request
Based In
United States
Signature Topic
AI & Humanity
Format
Keynote
About Byron
Byron Reese is a technology entrepreneur and author who writes about what artificial intelligence means for human identity rather than only for industry. He previously served as CEO and publisher of the technology research firm Gigaom.
His book The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity (2018) sets the current AI debate against the three earlier technological transitions that changed what it meant to be human. Infinite Progress (2013) argued that technology would end ignorance, disease, poverty, hunger, and war.
More recent work moves toward the science of mind and collective behavior, including Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think (2022) and We Are Agora (2023). He holds a number of technology patents.
Reese spent his career building and running technology companies before writing about them, including a period as chief executive of the technology research firm Gigaom, and holds a number of patents. That operating background is why the futurism avoids the two failure modes of the genre: it is neither a product pitch nor an abstract thought experiment.
His books include Infinite Progress, The Fourth Age, and Stories, Ideas and Wonders, and they share a method of setting current technology against a long historical arc rather than against last quarter. For an audience being asked to make decisions about AI without a technical background, that framing tends to be more useful than a briefing on current capabilities, which dates within months.
Keynote Topics
The Fourth Age: AI and What It Means to Be Human
Will Machines Ever Be Conscious?
Automation, Jobs, and the Long View
How Humans Got Here: Technology and Collective Intelligence
Best For
- AI and emerging-technology conferences
- Executive strategy and foresight sessions
- Association and industry annual meetings
- Future-of-work programs
- University and public lecture series
Booking Byron Reese: Frequently Asked Questions
What is Byron Reese's speaking fee?
Byron Reese's fee is not published on this site and is quoted per event, driven by event date, location and travel, session length, whether a workshop, breakout or moderated Q&A is added to the keynote, and whether book copies or licensed follow-up material are included. Submit an inquiry with your date and audience size for a current quote.
What topics does Byron Reese speak on?
The Fourth Age and what AI means for being human, whether machines will ever be conscious, automation, jobs and the long view, and how technology and collective intelligence got us here. The framing is historical and philosophical rather than tactical.
Is Byron Reese a good fit for an audience new to AI?
Often a better fit than a technical speaker, because the talks start from what the technology means rather than how it works. If your audience is a leadership group that needs orientation rather than implementation detail, say so in the brief and we will confirm the framing.
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Byron Reese
Author, Entrepreneur & Futurist
Fee on request
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