Intellectual Forum

Last week while most eyes were focussed on the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, a group of leading AI practitioners gathered for the Responsible Leaders in AI Summit at the University of Cambridge's Intellectual Forum to discuss how to manage autonomous agents in light of Clawdbot self-organising to create its own social network (Moltbook) and religion (Crustafarianism). While OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei wouldn't hold hands for a photo op with Narendra Modi (https://lnkd.in/d455f-mK), we were discussing the speed of change (it took Clawdbot only 48 hours to found Crustafarianism...) and how to adapt. Like typical humans we reverted to debate, discourse, post-its and flipcharts; Clawdbot was probably quietly laughing at us as it molted its shell. We then spent several hours 'wargaming' scenarios of acceleration looking at societal impacts, regulation and the political landscape, all very believably modelled by Mission Control AI using real world past events and extrapolating multiple vectors from each decision point. There was never a 'right' answer (just look at the screenshots and their social media feeds) and it very much demonstrated the challenges facing us as AI practitioners and the politicians trying to catch up with the tech. Did we find an 'answer'? No. But what it did make us realise is that speed of change has logarithmically shifted, from a 6 month horizon at the first summit in 2023 to a 48 hour horizon in 2026. Just ruminate on that for a minute. Clawdbot isn't Skynet, this isn't a Hollywood blockbuster, but what it does illustrate is that no matter how good your guardrails are - and Anthropic's are some of the best in the business - a couple of geeks can disrupt your business faster than most companies can adapt. My one takeaway from last week is this: getting the great and good of the world together in Delhi to sign up to a set of principles is great, but it isn't fast enough. Don't wait for someone else to build your framework or create legislation, talk to your own AI practitioners, wargame disruptive scenarios then work out how best to integrate autonomous agents in to your workforce with your HR and Risk teams. Thanks to Ramsay Brown and Julian Huppert for organising another thought provoking Summit, and the team at Jesus College Cambridge for hosting us again. #ai #autonomousagent #syntheticworker #clawdbot #moltbook #Crustafarianism

🎉 Our Friday event at the Jesus Intellectual Forum, marking the culmination of the 'Imaginaries of Immortality' project, was truly a dream come true for me. It brought together science and art, intellect and emotion, encounter and conversation, research and lived experience — everything I had hoped this project could hold. 👉 In the first part of the evening, I spoke about how this research was designed. From the beginning, I wanted to bring together elements that do not usually sit comfortably side by side: expert and non-expert perspectives, critique and imagination, scientific and artistic research methods. Despite many doubts, over time these seemingly incompatible elements began to work in synergy, creating something richer than any single approach could have achieved. I also shared the stories of participants — their fears and hopes surrounding digital immortality technologies — as well as our own uncertainties when setting this study in motion. In the final part, I reflected on how the conversations and experiences gathered throughout the study feed into theory and how the project contributes to academic debates. 👉 The panel discussion, moderated by Prof. Stephen Cave, featured a brilliant team: Tomasz Hollanek, PhD, Dr. Saide Mobayed Vega, and Anja Franczak. Together, we explored questions such as data accuracy, the design of rituals, the professionalization of digital afterlife care, the idea of multiple post-mortem avatars, and many more — thanks to the excellent questions from the audience. 👉 The immersive portraits installation, created by Tomasz Siuda, added another dimension to the discussion. Symbolically, it became our “tenth dinner” — allowing the conversation to continue and touching on, as Anja Franczak put it, that bittersweet space between presence and absence, death and life, happiness and sadness — echoing the (Im)mortality Over Dinner gatherings we held in Poland, India, and China. “We talked about death. That’s it. And that is already precious,” said one of the dinner participants in Poland. And perhaps that is the simplest and most important outcome of this entire journey. Thank you to everyone who was with us that day and contributed to this project over the last two years! 🙏 Link to the recording on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/exSfZS7C Photo credits: Tomasz Siuda More about the project: https://lnkd.in/dB6yWmNU *This project is funded by Schmidt Sciences within the AI2050 Fellowship and organised by the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge, in partnership with the Institute of the Good Death (Instytut Dobrej Śmierci), CK Zamek, Ashoka University, and Berggruen Institute in China. The event is co-produced with the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge. Photo installation partnered with Polskie Towarzystwo Fototerapeutyczne (Polish Phototherapy Association).

✨ What does it mean to cope with death, to resist it, or to imagine transcending it altogether? The rise of digital technologies such as AI chatbots or virtual avatars raise ethical, emotional, and cultural questions about how we remember, mourn, and live on. Last week we hosted an interdisciplinary event Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age of AI, that presented insights from a research project led by Dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, PhD . Based on fieldwork in Poland, India and China, the project explores how different cultures understand death, memory, and technology. The panel discussion featured project team members: Dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, Dr Tomasz Hollanek, PhD, Dr Saide Mobayed Vega, and Anja Franczak; moderated by Professor Stephen Cave. The project was funded by Schmidt Sciences and organised by CFI. Project partners: Institute of the Good Death, CK Zamek, Ashoka University, Beggruen Institute in China. Photo installation by Tomasz Siuda , partnered with Polskie Towarzystwo Fototerapeutyczne (Polish Phototherapy Association)" Thank you to Intellectual Forum at Jesus College for hosting us.

We had a great workshop on AI and the Law at Jesus College Cambridge and the Intellectual Forum. The Law of What Comes Next workshop is a research project I am working on with colleagues. It looks at law's ability to adapt and react as AI rapidly transforms society. It was great to do this workshop with Shubha Ghosh, Mark Giancaspro, Georgia Jenkins, Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan, James Goudkamp, Peter Yu, Caroline Dry, Sarah S., Michael Croft, Claes Granmar, Bernd Justin Jütte and others. Many thanks to Julian Huppert, Damian Walsh and the IF team for all their help. This was a small workshop and it allowed us to have some great conversations. Looking forward to more workshops on this project! Arisha Arif Gareth Dickson Matilda Gillis

It was lovely to be in Cambridge this week and great to be back as a Senior Research Associate with the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College Cambridge. It was great to spend some time here again as I convened a workshop on AI and the Law!