Byron Reese
Author, Entrepreneur & Futurist
Mo Gawdat
Former Chief Business Officer, Google X
AI & Human Happiness · Technology Ethics · Wellbeing
Speaking Fee
Fee on request
Based In
United Kingdom
Signature Topic
AI & Human Happiness
Format
Keynote
About Mo
Mo Gawdat spent more than a decade as a senior executive at Google, serving as Chief Business Officer at Google X, the company's moonshot division, where he worked on technologies years ahead of their public release.
After the death of his son Ali in 2014, he set out a personal mission he calls One Billion Happy and wrote Solve for Happy (2017), which treats happiness as an engineering problem with inputs that can be identified and changed.
His later work turns the same engineering lens on artificial intelligence. Scary Smart (2021) argues that AI will learn its values from how humans behave now, which makes the present moment the one that matters. He also wrote That Little Voice in Your Head (2022) and hosts the podcast Slo Mo.
Gawdat spent more than a decade at Google, latterly as chief business officer of Google X, the company's moonshot division. In 2014 his son Ali died during a routine operation, and the happiness model he had been developing privately as an engineering problem became Solve for Happy, written in the aftermath.
That combination is unusual and is the reason he works for briefs that would normally need two speakers. He can address AI seriously enough for a technical room, having helped run one of the more ambitious research operations in the industry, and address wellbeing without the register that makes corporate audiences switch off. His stated mission, One Billion Happy, is the through-line across both.
Keynote Topics
Scary Smart: Teaching AI What We Value
Solve for Happy: Happiness as an Engineering Problem
Technology, Ethics, and Human Wellbeing
Staying Human in an Automated Economy
Best For
- AI and technology conferences
- Employee wellbeing and mental-health programs
- Executive leadership retreats
- Culture and transformation events
- Innovation summits
Booking Mo Gawdat: Frequently Asked Questions
What is Mo Gawdat's speaking fee?
Mo Gawdat'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. He is based outside the US, so travel and time zone affect both the fee and the schedule. Submit an inquiry with your date and location.
What topics does Mo Gawdat speak on?
Scary Smart and teaching AI what we value, Solve for Happy and treating happiness as an engineering problem, technology, ethics and human wellbeing, and staying human in an automated economy. He bridges the AI conversation and the wellbeing conversation, which few speakers do credibly.
Is Mo Gawdat suitable for a wellbeing or culture event?
Yes, and that is one of the more common reasons he is booked. His engineering background means the wellbeing material avoids the soft framing that a skeptical corporate audience often rejects. Tell us whether the event leans toward technology or toward culture and we will confirm which version of the talk fits.
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Mo Gawdat
Former Chief Business Officer, Google X
Fee on request
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