Andrew Maynard

1 week ago | futureofbeinghuman.com | Andrew Maynard

This is more of a pre-vacation ramble than a full blown article. But I’m going with it anyway as I’m half way across the Atlantic and and heading toward three blissful unplugged weeks of vacation — and wanted to get something up before taking a short break from this Substack.

2 weeks ago | futureofbeinghuman.com | Andrew Maynard

To many academics (although by no means all), the level of popular support for Donald Trump in the last US election came as a surprise. They simply could not understand how so many people could possibly ignore facts that — in their view — called into question Trump’s fitness for office. The only conclusion — or so it seemed — was that his supporters were suffering from a deep deficit of knowledge and understanding that, if filled, would have led to a very different outcome.

3 weeks ago | futureofbeinghuman.com | Andrew Maynard

Several weeks ago I was asked to produce a learning module on the ethical and responsible development and use of AI. It was to be part of a new undergraduate course on AI literacy. But I had a problem: everything about AI is moving so fast that any set-in-stone course material would almost definitely be out of date before the first time it was taught. Plus, let’s be honest, who wants a dry lecture from a “talking head” about AI ethics and responsibility — important as they are?

4 weeks ago | futureofbeinghuman.com | Andrew Maynard

Last summer I published an article on “Why all undergrads should take at least one course where they watch sci-fi movies in class” — some of you will remember it. In it I wrote about Arizona State University’s Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future class, and how it equips students to think about technology innovation and the future in ways few other classes do. I’m beginning to gear up to teach the class again this fall (it’ll be for the 9th time I believe).

1 month ago | futureofbeinghuman.com | Andrew Maynard

When OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman wrote back in January that “in 2025, we may see the first AI agents ‘join the workforce’” he effectively predicted this to be the year of agentic AI. While much of Altman’s new year’s reflection still reads more as hype than reality, interest in artificial intelligence systems that can make their own decisions and influence the environment they operate in has accelerated over the past few months.