Jamie Metzl Featured Technology and Healthcare Futurist, Global Affairs Specialist, Science Fiction Novelist, and Genetic Engineering Expert

The rapid growth and proliferation of astounding new AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek, are just one part of an even bigger story. After nearly four billion years of life on earth, our species suddenly has the increasing ability to engineer novel intelligence and reengineer life. The essential question for us and our planet is whether we can quickly learn to use these almost godlike powers wisely. Leading technology and healthcare futurist and Superconvergence author Jamie Metzl explores how interconnected advances in AI, genetics, biotechnology, and other fields are driving fundamental changes in how we live and work, our economies, our healthcare, the foods we eat, and our interactions with the world around us – and what we each and all can do to optimize the very tangible benefits and minimize the equally real potential harms.

The rapid growth of new AI systems like ChatGPT and Google Bard have made most people realize significant change is on the horizon. But while most people still think of these AI capabilities as improved internet search tools, the implications are far more profound. Just like the agricultural, industrial, and computer revolutions before it, the AI revolution will transform most every aspect of our personal and professional lives. Along with our new capabilities in genetics and biotechnology, it will change how we live and work, our economies, our healthcare, the foods we eat, and our interactions with the world around us. In this both far-reaching and highly practical talk, leading futurist Jamie Metzl explores the big picture implications of this transformative moment in human history and how individuals, companies, and societies can best ride the wave of this change rather than be subsumed by it. 

The transition from today’s system of generalized medicine based on population averages to the new model of precision healthcare based on each person’s individual biology is already well underway. But the use of new generative AI systems and the precision medicine tools of genome sequencing, big data analytics, and targeted gene therapies to treat cancer and other diseases are paving the way for a further transition to more predictive and preventive healthcare. Leading technology and Healthcare futurist and Superconvergence author Jamie Metzl elucidates how the tools and capabilities of the intersecting artificial intelligence, genetics, and biotechnology revolutions are transforming healthcare and lays out key principles for how health industry professionals and associations, the business community, and governments can prepare for a revolution that is coming far sooner than most people recognize.

Faster than most people understand or appreciate, our growing, superhuman capabilities to restructure the building blocks of life will fundamentally alter the way we prevent and treat disease, generate energy, grow food, store data, create industrial materials, and much more. Just like the information technology revolution started small then “ate the world,” the biology revolution is about to change much of everything. Most businesses and other organizations are not ready. In this mind-expanding talk, visionary futurist Jamie Metzl describes how the biotechnology revolution will play out over the coming years and what we can all do on a personal, professional, and global level to prepare and thrive.

Jamie Metzl has been called “the original COVID-19 whistleblower” for his pioneering work probing the origins of the pandemic, which has been covered by 60 Minutes and in most every major newspaper across the globe. Understanding how the pandemic began has massive implications for preventing the next one, but efforts to just that have been hampered at every turn. In this pioneering talk, Jamie opens up about the epic and ongoing struggle for a full investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and what it will take to build a safer future for all.

Most everybody knows we should exercise, eat well, build meaningful communities, and reduce stress to live healthy longer. But the revolutionary new science of human life extension is creating enticing new possibilities for using technology to extend our lives far beyond what nature intended. While the quest for immortality has been the stuff of fairy tales, the new science of life extension will soon be pushing the limits of aging and unlocking human potential in ways our ancestors never could have imagined. Technology futurist Jamie Metzl explores the latest breakthroughs in the science of human life extension that promise to gain is more of life‘s most precious commodity: time. Jamie explains what individuals, companies, and governments must do now to prepare for this revolutionary future that will fundamentally reorganize our societies and global economics.

The future is coming at us faster than ever before. As the pace of technological change in fields like artificial intelligence, genomics, and robotics increases exponentially, the sands of national and international politics are shifting under our feet more than at any time since the end of WWII. But while this moment of radical change creates great peril for organizations that stick too rigidly to traditional ways of thinking and operating, it provides unparalleled opportunities for those who challenge themselves to think differently, creatively imagine future scenarios, and set out on a journey to succeed in a radically new environment. Organizations must, in other words, begin thinking like science fiction writers. In this wide-ranging and highly focused talk and participatory workshop, Jamie clearly explains the converging mega-trends reshaping our world, describes how science fiction writers draw on evidence from the present to build a world of tomorrow, and outlines a specific road map for how organizations can use the powerful tool of thinking more like science fiction writers to better prepare for the future and unlock hidden organizational potential.

The rapid growth of new AI systems like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and DeepSeek has helped most people appreciate that radical change is coming. But while many of us still think of these AI capabilities as improved internet search tools, the implications are far more profound. Like the agricultural, industrial, and computer revolutions before it, the AI and associated revolutions will transform almost every aspect of our professional lives, organization, and economies.

Boards of organizations of all sizes are all now facing essential questions about how to best integrate AI and other revolutionary new technologies into their work. While these questions may often seem primarily operational, they are first and foremost strategic. Instead of starting their deliberations at an operational level, boards instead need to ask what their organizations are trying to achieve, what standards and values they are seeking to uphold, and only then what mix of human and machine capabilities can help best realize those aspirations. Because all organizations will allocate tremendous resources towards building out these capabilities, the most important first step a board can make is often a short step back.

In this two hour session, including a lecture, Q&A, and concentrated workshop, leading technology futurist and strategist Jamie Metzl helps boards take that thoughtful step back and explore the core principles that must undergird smart future investments in technology, empowering organizations to ride the coming tidal wave of rapid technological change rather than be subsumed by it.