The year 2025 isn't just pivotal – it's the stage for a new world order. 'The new USA' has plunged diplomacy and economics into chaos, establishing misinformation and intimidation as cornerstones of global interaction. What happens if truth is negotiableb and established diplomacy is upended? As longstanding alliances strain and trust erodes, the critical question emerges: how long before U.S. democracy fractures completely, and what comes next? BUT which opportunities may result from this crisis (like the USofE) ?

At the same time, the climate emergency is no longer just a potential threat— it's here, now; devastatingly real and relentless. And if that's not enough, while humanity could potentially prosper with the wide availability of amazing AI tools, we must also face the threats of Artificial General Intelligence (our last invention?) Will AGI elevate humanity to unprecedented heights, or swiftly render us irrelevant? The fight for The Good Future is ON.

Digital Labor (“A digital workforce of intelligent AI agents that augments the human workforce, and transforms the way work gets done”) is all the rage: Swarms of AI agents poised to tackle all the routine work that once bogged down human time and productivity. From drafting simple contracts and NDAs to interpreting scans and MRIs, hundreds of vendors are painting a utopia where drudge tasks vanish, productivity soars, and boardrooms celebrate a future with with a lot less “expensive” (and pesky) humans. My hunch is that behind the glossy demos and the“frontier firm”pitches lies a techno-optimist reductionism: swap flesh-and-blood employees for lines of code, automate oversight, ethics and authenticity into oblivion… Who benefits when “the full automation of the economy becomes more than a Silicon Valley VC fad? If real intelligence is social, embodied and holistic, then “machine smartness” is merely a power tool—useful, yes – but unthinking, unaware and uncaring.

AI has become a general-purpose technology like fire or the printing press, and it's the dominant technology platform ,as well. It could be heaven, or it could be hell, depending on whether the tools and agents will dominate us, or whether human telos (the destination and the purpose) will prevail. The more power we have, the more wisdom we'll need! And that's true regardless of pursueing AGI, or not.

Science fiction is increasingly becoming science fact as smart machines – both physical and virtual – take on more tasks once thought impossible for a“digital entity”to accomplish. As a result, knowledge work is transforming at a rapid pace, forcing us to reconsider what it means to be human – in our daily life, in our professions and in our organisations. What will happen if and when machines become‘generally intelligent‘?

We must embrace these new possibilities while also preserving and protecting our humanity. We need proaction and precaution. We must define new values and goals that transcend increased efficiency or the resulting financial gains. I think it will be our androrithms, our uniquely human skills and traits that will make us invaluable in this coming age of AI, not just our ability to command technology or to become faster by using it (or even to merge with it).

In this customized talk, Gerd guides his audience through what is important (and real) versus what is utopia or plain false (or dangerous) when it comes to AI. I delineate how we can harness the power of AI to further human (and planetary) flourishing, happiness, success, and well-being. He then sets forth why he believes that the future holds great promise if we play our cards right - and IF we agree to pursue People, Planet, Purpose, and Prosperity.