AI has incredible potential to tackle pressing global challenges like climate change, inequality, and the fragility of democracies. However, it also raises critical questions about trust, ethics, and how societies can adapt to rapid technological transformation. The Conduit’s 2025 Solutions Agenda emphasizes using AI for good—empowering communities, fostering innovation, and driving meaningful progress. By focusing on people, we can navigate AI’s complexities and unlock its power as a force for positive change.

Building on this vision, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit by Eric Schmidt, the late Henry Kissinger, and Craig Mundie explores how AI could shape solutions for climate resilience, social equity, and more—while grappling with its challenges. The Conduit hosts Craig Mundie, celebrated technologist and former Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft, in a conversation led by neuroscientist and author of Being You, Anil Seth, an expert on the science of consciousness. Together, they share insights from this groundbreaking collaboration, examining how we can harness AI’s opportunities, address its challenges, and unlock its potential to drive AI for good.

Event Schedule

12:45 PM: Doors Open

1:00 PM: Event Begins

2:15 PM: Event Ends

Speakers:

Craig Mundie is President of Mundie & Associates, which counsels CEOs on strategic issues caused by rapidly evolving information technologies. At the end of 2014 Mundie retired after a twenty-two-year career at Microsoft. During his transition year he was the Senior Advisor to the CEO, before which he was Chief Research and Strategy Officer since 2007. Mundie was appointed by President Clinton and subsequently served for Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. President Obama appointed him in 2009 to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Anil Seth is a neuroscientist, author, and public speaker who has pioneered research into the brain basis of consciousness for more than twenty-five years. He is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience and Director of the Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex, Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Program on Brain, Mind and Consciousness, a European Research Council Advanced Investigator, and fomer Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Neuroscience of Consciousness.

He has published more than 200 research papers and has been recognised by Web of Science, over several years, as being in the top 0.1% of researchers worldwide. A former Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow, in 2023 he was awarded the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize for his services to public outreach. His two TED talks have been viewed more than sixteen million times, he has appeared in several films, and he has written for Aeon, The Guardian, Granta, New Scientist, and Scientific American, and he is lead scientist on the Dreamachine project. Prospect Magazine listed him as one of the Top 25 global thinkers for 2024. His book Being You: A New Science of Consciousness was an instant Sunday Times Bestseller and a 2021 Book of the Year for The Economist, The New Statesman, Bloomberg Business, The Guardian, The Financial Times and elsewhere.