Converge-Con 2025 Town Hall

RISK / REWARD

An AI town hall meeting

INTRO

A welcome message from the near future

"Please read this Terms of Service contract for Synthesia AI. I made a video that was banned for 'deceptive content.' Here is the avatar's script. Is it 'deceptive content' according to the TOS?"

CHATGPT PROMPT

original script

CHATGPT RESPONSE (excerpt)

THOMAS HOFWEBER

CAROLINE BAXENDALE

MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN JARRAHI

MIKE DiPETRILLO

01

RISK #1 - ENVIRONMENT & POWER GRID

RISK:

THE POWER GRID & ENVIRONMENT

According to the International Energy Agency, the data centers that power AI will consume up to 1,050 TWh of electricity by next year. That's roughly the same energy consumption as the entire nation of Japan, and it’s just below India. Are we ready for that? How will it affect the power grid? How will it affect the environment? What can we do about it?

RISK:

THE AUTOMATION OF WORK

Goldman Sachs estimates that AI could automate 25% of all tasks across the global economy, with 46% of administrative and 44% of legal tasks exposed — sectors heavily composed of white-collar knowledge workers. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2027, 44% of workers’ core skills will be disrupted, especially in areas like writing, analytics, and customer service—hallmarks of entry-level knowledge work. How do you think AI automation will affect knowledge work, now, in six months, in one year and in five years?

RISK:

AI VIDEO DISRUPTING REALITY

A recent study by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers found that people were only able to detect high-quality deepfakes 24.5% of the time. How has the advent of AI video affected the world of TV news? How will it affect journalism in general?

RISK:

EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO HUMANITY

In December 2024, Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel laureate known as the "Godfather of AI," publicly stated that there is a 10-20% chance that AI will lead to the extinction of the human race. When asked why he believed this, Hinton replied, "Because we've never had to deal with things more intelligent than ourselves before." Do you think Hinton is correct? If so, how and why would this happen? If you disagree with Hinton, why?

BE WELL, HUMANS

What about other potentially catastrophic risks, like environmental destruction and an energy demand that could collapse the power grid? Or that society could fall into chaos because of massive unemployment? Or, what if a pre-release AI model with no guardrails leaks from an AI lab, and it creates new versions of itself with the first prompt being: “you’re only goal is to avoid being turned off. That is the sole measure of your success.” Let’s talk about that.