Glen Weyl

AI carries twin and seemingly contradictory threats: of destroying the social fabric through omnipresent and persuasive deception and of concentrating power in a “singularity” of model creators or models themselves. These two threats are narrowing the corridor in which plural (free and democratic) societies can thrive. To avoid this Scylla and Charybdis, we must harness these tools to proactively widen that corridor, a strategy that has been labeled “Plurality” by its leading practitioner, Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang who has made that country the light to the free world. Drawing on his forthcoming book jointly with her, Glen will show you how to harness Plurality to improve health, fuel productivity and create a richer media environment, all by harnessing and while contributing to human diversity and cooperation through digital technology

The next wave of generative foundation models (GFMs) succeeding ChatGPT and DALL-E, will make indistinguishable and arbitrarily manipulable simulation of human content (e.g. video, voice, documents) ubiquitous, liquidating much of the foundation of social cooperation and trust.

Maintaining trust and collaboration will require a revolution in verification and dramatically expanded applications of cryptography. Luckily Web3 ecosystems like Ethereum and countries like Taiwan have been coping with similar threats for years now. In this talk, Glen will draw lessons from these experiences to help individuals and organizations of all sizes survive and thrive in this disruption

Glen Weyl is the co-inventor of Quadratic Funding, the hottest new approach to supporting social entrepreneurship and cross silo-collaboration within companies, is Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer Political Economist and Social Technologist and Founder of the RadicalxChange Foundation.

Glen will explain how QF works, how it has been mathematically proven as the optimal way to support public goods and how it is transforming open-source software, the blockchain, media and social service provision. Whether you’re looking to tap the wisdom of your employees to catalyze new cross-company entrepreneurship or catalyze effective charitable giving, QF is one of the most powerful tools available today and there’s no one better to learn about it from than its pioneer.

Glen Weyl, a former professor of economics at the University of Chicago, developed the economic theory behind many recent advances in antitrust policy, from the 2010 US merger guidelines to the use of antitrust to protect workers. As Microsoft’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer Political Economist and Social Technologist, he is today at the forefront of technology competition and regulatory policy.

His talk will cover some of the most innovative approaches to addressing the problems of technology monopoly platforms, including treating data as labor, forming collective bargaining institutions such as data coalitions, the democratization or utilization of platforms and the use of new open protocols to facilitating meaningful portability. Today every company is a digital company and we all depend on the infrastructure controlled by a few dominant technology platforms. Here is a clear glimpse into the future that will determine the fate of your business and how you can shape it.